serial killer penpals and postmortem photography

this weekend was all over the place in terms of ups and downs. i could use another weekend just to recover from the weekend!

saturday was filled with awesome. it all started when josh and i finally stopped messing around and went down to the post office together to apply for a p.o. box. i have been saying for years that i wanted to write to serial killers...not because i condone gruesome murders (although there ARE a few people i could think of....ok ok just kidding) but because y'all know about most of my morbid fascinations by now. of course this has the potential to be risky business, but at least another address makes me feel a bit more at ease. if i actually acquire any penpals, i'm toying with the idea of starting a new blog for that. i don't want to freak out people who follow this blog and think i'm a total creep for getting excited when i find a letter in my mailbox...

next, my pal mags stopped over so he and his wife could meet josh for the first time! they also brought me some of the best new york pizza there is! HA!



i was only joking when i told mags to bring some on his visit but he insisted. what an awesome friend! the hot trash with jeff as my special guest will finally take place TOMORROW so be sure to tune in for cool records, silly stories and total madness!

next josh and i went junking with our friend greg. we didn't have much luck out at stores, but i DID find this little guy! anyone know if he is from something or has a name? he has no tags or markings of any kind.



the day would have been a big bust if it weren't for our amazing friends!greg brought josh and i some old satanic/occult/voodoo books. they have really neat illustrations. josh plans to learn how to become invisible.





then my girlfriend phoebe called me over to go through stuff she was cleaning out of her house. it felt like christmas! she gave me such wonderful stuff like picture frames, books, and best of all, OLD PHOTOS! don't ask me why but i have an obsession with other people's photos, especially if they are old. i have a whole shelf at hotel hot trash full of photos i found when i worked at the thrift store.







not only were there neat things like fancy facial hair and vintage cars, but I DO BELIEVE I HAVE NOW ACQUIRED MY FIRST POST MORTEM PHOTO! yes dear readers, yet another creepy obsession of mine. this is something i wanted to start collecting, but i either haven't had the luck to come across unidentified ones or don't have the money to start buying real, honest-to-goodness collections. for those that aren't familiar...post mortems (pms for short) are the practice of taking a photograph of a recently deceased person for the purpose of honoring and remembering them. this was a popular practice up until the 20th century, although it is now often thought of as morbid and strange. if you would like to read up about post mortem photography, here is a good starting point.

i asked the author of a popular PM site for an opinion on whether this is one or not, and he said he believes that it is. what do you think? i present to you: the neatest thing i have gotten in a long time! thanks, phoebe!!


(look at how weird the eyes look..and that one hand that isn't really clutching anything...and how stiff the body looks...)

to make matters even MORE interesting, phoebe believes that this may be a photo she had in her own collection and might be someone from her family! not only does it have her family's city of origin stamped on the back, but she thinks she recognizes the couch the baby is posed on as the one she now owns!! how creepy cool is that?!

the truth is we may never know for sure if this is a pm (unless it IS someone from phoebe's family and she is able to find anything in her family history), but in a way the speculation is an interesting facet all its own.

sunday was mostly a bummer. my family had a surprise party for my grandma's 80th birthday. while it was fun to hang with the family (my family RULES!) there was an akward/scary moment when one of the guests actually had a heartattack in the middle of the party! he had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance. i haven't heard anything today but i hope he is ok!! later on josh and i went to a show to see my buddy NOBUNNY but the crowd was lame and rowdy and i got so annoyed i left without even watching the spits play. nobunny was great, as usual. if i ever get my computer fixed, hopefully i will have some nobunny videos to post up in the future.

heres hoping the week only goes up from here!