Author: DC (Page 1 of 1057)

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“When you once believed something that now strikes you as absurd, even unhinged, it can be almost impossible to summon that feeling of credulity again. Maybe that is why it is easier for most of us to forget, rather than to try and explain, the Satanic-abuse scare that gripped this country in the early 80’s — the myth that Devil-worshipers had set up shop in our day-care centers, where their clever adepts were raping and sodomizing children, practicing ritual sacrifice, shedding their clothes, drinking blood and eating feces, all unnoticed by parents, neighbors and the authorities.

Of course, if you were one of the dozens of people prosecuted in these cases, one of those who spent years in jails and prisons on wildly implausible charges, one of those separated from your own children, forgetting would not be an option. You would spend the rest of your life wondering what hit you, what cleaved your life into the before and the after, the daylight and the nightmare.”

— Margaret Talbot, The Devil in the Nursery

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1) Michelle Remembers by Michele Smith and Lawrence Pazder, M.D.

The pitch:

“For over one year, [Dr. Lawrence] Pazder listened as…Michele [Smith] painfully divulged the incredible story. Her mother had been forced by a group of prosperous Satanists to yield Michelle for use in their most important ritual. They tried in vain to convert her to evil, using both torture and cruel psychological manipulation.”

About:

“What if one book had the power to plunge the world into a terrifying obsession with satanic cults? Michelle Remembers, a 1980 memoir by a young Canadian woman and her psychiatrist, Dr. Lawrence Pazder, did just that. Marketed as the true story of Michelle Smith’s experiences in a satanic cult in Victoria in the 1950s, this bestseller helped spark a global panic that sent law enforcement and mental health professionals on a scrambling to find secret Satanists hiding in our midst. It’s also the subject of a feature documentary, Satan Wants You.

“[After publication of Michelle Remembers] Pazder was considered to be an expert in the area of satanic ritual abuse. …In 1984, Pazder acted as a consultant in the McMartin preschool trial which featured allegations of satanic ritual abuse.” — Wikipedia

Sample passage:

“The others started doing this funny dance, and the nurse was doing it with them. She would bend down and walk in a slinky way, as if she were a cat, and then she would jump up and turn around, and then she would walk like a cat again, holding her kitten in her arms. Then Michelle got very scared, because they bent and took the kittens in their teeth, holding the cats by the napes of their necks. And then Michelle started screaming, because now they were biting the kittens in their teeth, chewing at their paws to make them come free, stopping only spit out the hair. Then they rubbed themselves with the cats’ blood, slowly, as they continued their catlike dance.”

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2) The Satan Seller by Mike Warnke

The pitch:

“A former Satanist high priest reveals the demonic forces behind the fastest-growing and most deadly occult religion in the world.”

About:

“After he got famous, I always wanted to write him a letter and say, ‘Mike, remember me? The one you gave the silver cross to? When were you able to have this coven of fifteen hundred people? Don’t you remember, about the most exciting thing we used to do was play croquet in Greg’s backyard?’ ” — Dyana Cridelich, friend of Mike Warnke

“A generation of Christians learned its basic concepts of Satanism and the occult from Mike Warnke’s testimony in The Satan Seller… We believe The Satan Seller has been responsible, more than any other single volume in the Christian market, for promoting the current nationwide ‘Satanism scare.’

“After our lengthy investigation into his background, we found discrepancies that raise serious doubts about the trustworthiness of [Warnke’s] testimony.” — Selling Satan: The Tragic History of Mike Warnke

Sample passage:

Background: Drug use and moral conflict over his actions as a Satanic high priest have led formerly mild-mannered college student Mike Warnke to become increasingly paranoid. Here he takes out his stress on his church-provided sex slaves.

“‘Where’s my fix?’

‘We’re still looking for it,’ Carmen answered. ‘Where did you put the speed?’

‘Speed? I don’t want speed. The H.’

‘H?’ They looked at each other grimly. ‘You don’t have any–‘

‘The hell I don’t. I picked some up yesterday. It’s stashed in the sugar can in the kitchen cabinet. Why don’t you chicks use your damn heads?’ I jumped out of bed and grabbed them by the hair and knocked their heads together. ‘You just need some sense knocked into you.’ I laughed. ‘Now, split.’

They rushed off, crying, to the kitchen.”

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3) Jay’s Journal by Anonymous (Edited by Dr. Beatrice Sparks)

The pitch:

“Jay was a nice, bright high school kid who cared about good grades, good friends, and good times… When a charismatic friend lured him into a nightmare world of the occult, Jay couldn’t handle it… Only in the pages of his journal could Jay express the dark forces that led to his suicide.”

About:

“Beatrice Sparks…is known for producing books purporting to be the ‘real diaries’ of troubled teenagers [most famously Go Ask Alice]. Although Sparks always presents herself as merely the discoverer and editor of the diaries, records at the U.S. Copyright Office show that in fact she is listed as the sole author for all but two of them.

“[Jay’s Journal] is based on ‘true’ events of 16-year-old Alden Barrett from Pleasant Grove, Utah, who committed suicide in 1971. According to a book written by Barrett’s brother Scott … Sparks used roughly 25 entries of 212 total from Barrett’s actual journal. The other entries were fictional…” — Wikipedia

Sample passage:

“When I found out Tina was having our wedding in the cemetery, by the big tomb, I about died. It was like making a mockery of the whole thing. I knew we’d invited only the kids connected with O and it was to be part of the sacred ancient sacrament but… Anyway, it was fantastic! …we each cut our tongues and let the blood pour into each other’s mouths. It was Nirvana. We were one! One blood, one toucla, one being!

When the chanting started Martin brought in a teensy mewing kitten. With one twist he wrung its little neck. Instantly we all put forth every gram of power at our command to bring it back to life again, that being the supreme taloa.

I don’t know how the others felt but I concentrated until I thought my whole being was going to detonate, then I relaxed … calling the cat’s karma … magnetizing its karma…but in vain, we had not yet advanced to that plane.

In a way the stilled kitten ruined the evening.”

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4) Satan’s Underground by Lauren Stratford

The pitch:

“As a child, Lauren Stratford lived the agony of being trapped between two worlds – the outside world of school, church, and friends, where everything appeared normal, and the inner world of a twisted, satanic nightmare, where mind control, fear, and ritualistic child abuse were her constant companions.”

@bizarreevil Lauren Stratford authored a book about her horrific abuse at the hands of Satanists. It was all a product of her imagination 🤷‍♂️ #Horror #TrueCrime #Halloween #Hoax ♬ original sound – EvilBizarre

About:

“Lauren Stratford’s story…became one of the key sources for promoting, perpetuating, and validating the satanic ritual abuse (SRA), ‘adult survivor,’ and ‘repressed memories’ hysteria that peaked in the early 1990s.

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‘After searching for photos for Hugh Hefner’s upcoming April 9 birthday, the Playboy Mansion employee uncovered “some Polaroids from 1977 that showed a large excavation project at The Mansion.” When the staff member inquired about the tunnels, the Mansion’s general manager confirmed that Hefner had the tunnels built to connect the “bunnies” to celebrities’ houses. The plans reference the homes of “Mr. J. Nicholson,” “Mr. W. Beatty,” “Mr. K. Douglas” and “Mr. J. Caan,” which is enough information to distinguish the four highly recognizable monikers. All of the men lived near Hefner’s world-renowned home during the ’70s and ’80s, so the underground maps could be legitimate. The tunnels were reportedly closed in 1989, around the same time Hefner married Playmate Kimberley Conrad, and, when asked, the general manager wouldn’t disclose any more information about the hidden passageways.’

 

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‘Have you ever heard about the guy who literally lived under a rock in the Californian desert, where legendary flying saucer conventions were held in the 1950s? We go back to the 1930s, when an eccentric German immigrant called Frank Critzer dug out this subterranean home for himself under the giant rock. He lived there alone, isolated from society with nothing but a radio antenna he set up on top of the rock to stay connected with the outside world. But in 1942, during a showdown with police who came to investigate rumours that he was in fact a Nazi spy, Frank died from a self-detonated dynamite explosion in his own bunker. Locals had reported strange behaviour, several incidents of Frank threatening trespassers with a shotgun and suspicion that he was a spy because of his radio antenna. After his death, Frank’s only friend, a former aircraft inspector named George Van Tassel, became the giant rock’s new tenant in 1947. In a few short years, George went from living a simple existence with his family in the rooms Frank Critzer had dug out under the Giant Rock, to building his own restaurant on the site, a small airstrip, and an extra-terrestrial research centre which would play host to his annual Giant Rock Spacecraft Convention, attracting more than 11,000 people at its peak. The dome-shaped “Integraton” structure still survives today in Landers, California, near the Giant Rock but not as a pilgrimage site for ufologists. After Tassel’s death in 1978 there were plans to turn it into a disco. Instead, the new owners turned it into an 0ff-beat tourist attraction offering “sound baths”, claiming it to be “the only all-wood, acoustically perfect sound chamber in the U.S.”’

 

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‘There are a few places that would be simultaneously terrific and terrifying to explore, and one of those places would be Russia. Everyone knows the history of Russia is brutal, cold, unforgiving, cold, rough and cold. Well there is a guy name Shiey who does all this exploration so you don’t have to. In his latest little adventure, he has found something quite spectacular. He was walking through the territory of a factory, when he noticed a weird concrete block with a metal gate on the side of it. He of course found a way through and explored every inch of what was inside.’

 

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‘A multi-millionaire plans to triple the size of his London mansion by digging down 50ft to create a four-storey basement complete with swimming pool, spa, ballroom and no fewer than 12 bedrooms. Architects’ drawings show how the vast house, originally built as a school in the 19th century, will be created by excavating deeper than the height of neighbouring homes. As well as the spa area, it will have servants’ quarters consisting of five staff bedrooms. There will also be wine cellars, an art storage room, parking for three vehicles and a car lift. Estate agents estimate the property could be worth up to £90million with the work completed. Neighbours who have objected to the plans include novelist Edna O’Brien and the Duchess of St Albans Gillian Beauclerk. The duchess said: ‘These plans are absolutely monstrous and unnecessary. It’s just absolute greed. No one needs that much space.’’

 

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‘Just decrypted this blueprint of the White House from JFK’s term—it looks like he signed off on the construction of a secret safe room under the White House while Jackie O was renovating.’

 

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‘A underground facility and bunker dubbed “The Facility” in Southeast Georgia two hours from Savannah just hit the market for $17.5 million. The property, which is exclusively listed by Sister Hood of Harry Norman, Realtors Buckhead Office, was built in 1969 and fully renovated to government standards in 2012. According to Harry Norman, it is the only hardened and privately owned underground bunker of its kind in the United States. The property features a commercial 3-Phase power plant, in addition to its own 8Kw new solar backup system. The facility is also equipped with a $100,000 CCTV security system.’

 

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‘People taking a train journey in or out of Liverpool may well have caught the faintest glimpse of a tiny house deep underground. The little house sits between the train tracks at Lime Street station, and is easily missed in the dark station cutting. The house is also dangerous and difficult to get to as there are busy, live railway tracks on either side. The house is thought to be more than a century old and no one has any idea who built it or lived there or why.’

 

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‘Worried about the end of the world? For those who can afford them, one company is creating subterranean housing complexes – modern-day super-bomb-shelters across the United States designed to survive any apocalyptic scenario yet imagined. Killer comets, pole shifts, super volcanoes, global tsunamis, extreme earthquakes, biological and nuclear war – each are scenarios supposedly covered in the design plans by Vivos of these luxury underground homes to be built in 120 locations in range of most major US cities.’

 

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VERY RARE 2005 HAMTARO SECRET UNDERGROUND HOUSE PLAYSET

 

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‘You’d expect students to know their houses upside-down. With countless hours spent avoiding lectures, hosting parties, and hiding from the world, no crevice goes untouched. My flatmates and I thought the same, until we discovered a secret underground rave room locked away in our student house. We had dismissed the door as a boiler room entrance. But one day we gathered the troops together and managed to pop the door open with a teaspoon. We opened to find this.’

 

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‘An alleged gang hideaway in California hid more than just crime suspects — it included a hidden manhole cover that was lifted to reveal an AR-15 assault rifle, thousands of rounds of ammunition and an underground shooting range.’

 

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I was trapped in a car & buried alive..

 

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‘Antonio, a bricklayer from Villas del Prado 1, Mexico, was having an affair with a married woman from the town’s Tijuana neighborhood. In order to make sure no one saw him visiting his secret lover, Pamela, the man started working on an underground tunnel that stretched all the way from his home to the woman’s.

‘Antonio used his experience in construction to dig a tight, but durable tunnel that crossed several streets from his home to that of her lover’s. Once it was finished, they were able to meet in secret, every time Pamela’s husband, Jorge, left to work. The one thing they didn’t plan for, though, was Jorge coming home from work sooner than scheduled…

‘One day, while Antonio and Pamela were consummating their affair, the woman’s husband came home and walked in on them. The bricklayer tried to hide from the furious husband, crawled under the bed and disappeared into the “love tunnel”. Unfortunately for him, Jorge started looking for him all through the house, and when he looked under his marital bed, he found the tunnel entrance.

‘The scorned husband crawled into the secret tunnel himself, and ended up in Antonio’s house, where the desperate bricklayer begged him to keep quiet , because his wife was in the next room and he didn’t want her to find out about his extramarital escapade. That managed to enrage Jorge even more, and the two men got into a fist fight. Seeing a strange man beating on her husband in his own home, the shocked wife called the police, and Antonio had no choice but to confess his unfaithfulness.’

 

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‘This decommissioned military base complex turned silo home-in-a-hole is anything but Top Secret today. Its owners boast the set of converted structures to be the “world’s most unique luxury home. The subterranean launch control center is a cylinder surrounded by an epoxy-resin, steel-reinforced, three-foot-thick structural wall that (particularly given its depth in the ground) is essentially as apocalypse-proof as a home gets. The entire structure is suspended on springs to absorb the shock of a nuclear blast. Forget blueprints and standard floor plans: this historic house comes with its own top-secret, government-certified schematics. 2.3 million dollars might sound like a lot – even for a high-end mansion – but if you consider that the original cost of construction was around ten times that much (in 1950s dollars, without accounting for inflation) the current converted property seems a steal by comparison. Oh, and their FAQ page points out that the Russians are well aware that the silo has been decommissioned, so presumably they would no longer consider it a primary target should an all-out world war come along.’

 

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‘You wouldn’t happen to be in the market for a 1970s underground family home, equipped to live in for up to a year without resurfacing in the event of a nuclear missile strike that wipes out humanity, would ya? Because it just so happens one has just come onto the market. And this piece of real estate gold could be all yours for the bargain price of $1.7 million. The subterranean Las Vegas home at 3970 Spencer St. near Flamingo Road boasts a 15,200-square-foot basement beneath a two story home above ground. From the street, number 3970 looks like any other American home, except with a few extra ventilation and air conditioning units planted around the yard. Camouflaged by clusters of rocks, an entrance with an elevator takes you down to the underground lair. Another stairway is hidden inside a shed. The house was built in 1978 to withstand a nuclear blast by an arguably ‘paranoid’ wealthy businessman, Girard “Jerry” B. Henderson. The ambitious homeowner made his fortune with several companies including Avon cosmetics and Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.’

 

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‘Today in 1962, the community of Artesia, New Mexico formally opened an unusual elementary school. It was built entirely underground, just in case the Cold War turned hot. The school building was a giant slab of steel-reinforced concrete, designed to withstand the effects of a nuclear bomb. There were 28 rooms, 18 of which were originally classrooms.’

 

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‘In the remote South Australian desert, temperatures reach 125 °F / 51 °C – in the shade. Can you imagine the air conditioning bills? Neither could the residents of Coober Pedy, the world’s only underground town. Coober Pedy was founded in 1915. In this waterless environment, not much activity goes on above ground and instead, the community exists in a network of tunnels underneath the desert earth, inside some 1,500 homes and dwellings they call their “dug-outs”. The town boasts a network of underground bars, shops, museums and churches.’

 

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‘A creepy graveyard complete with a decaying crypt. Inside the crypt are steps leading down to a mysterious underground house (unfurnished.) The lot size is 2×3. This lot contains the following custom content created by myself: 5 original mesh gravestones (Find in decorative/ sculpture. They can be placed anywhere indoors or outdoors.) 3 spooky trees – one being the Maxis spooky tree except it can be placed on floor tiles. The other two are derived from Maxis trees with texture/shape changed. (Find all in decorative/sculpture. They can be placed anywhere indoors or outdoors.) 9 floor textures, including a dead grass texture for floor tiles. 2 terrain textures, including a matching dead grass texture. 21 wall textures, many of them multiple tile textures. The house is not furnished. The one issue with this underground house is that objects that have to be placed against walls can’t be placed against the exterior walls unless you use the “moveobjects on” cheat. I have a furnished version in my game and I found that I didn’t need to use the cheat at all. All interior walls work as usual. The cost of this lot is approximately 27,000.’

 

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‘This Minecraft underground house/base design/ideas build tutorial on Xbox, PE, PS3, and or PC is very easy to do and looks really great anywhere in your world.’

 

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‘The author of this plan speculated on building this spherical city in Manhattan bedrock—a structure which so far as I can determine would have a volume of 1.2 cubic miles (5 km3) with its top beginning some 1,200’ under Times Square […] Newman published this in 1969 (?!) after somehow latching onto the idea of clearing out massive underground caverns with nuclear explosions—in this case, the space would be hollowed out under Manhattan. The underground sphere would be a miniature version of whatever was above it—along the medial there would be a “topside” of a regular city with streets and high rise buildings, underneath which would exist an underground city for the underground city. In this honeycomb would exist the means of production and energy, segmented in multi-block-sized enclosures of no charm.’

 

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‘Deep in the heart of Rio Arriba County, New Mexico lies the tiny town of Dulce, population 2,788 . . . above ground that is. For the tiny town is said to hide a secret, underneath its sleepy streets and quiet homes a secret alien base has been constructed where humans and extraterrestrial beings work together performing bizarre and sinister experiments. These allegations date all the way back to 1979 when claims of the strange goings on first emerged thanks to a businessman called Paul Bennewitz who claimed to have very high resolution official NASA U2 CIR (color infrared) photos in addition to low level and ground photos showing the base in total detail. He was ignored, and in 1988, he published a paper called “Project Beta” where he detailed how to expose the base, as well as how to launch an attack on it. Sadly, most people labeled him as delusional, and sadly he suffered a mental breakdown years later. He died on June 23, 2003, but the mystery of what really lies beneath Dulce remains unsolved.’

 

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‘A luxurious underground mansion is being built beneath the grounds of Limehurst, a Victorian property converted into flats. The entrance to the two-storey, three-bedroom mansion, named the Earth House, is a front door disguised as a 2.6m-high garden folly, leading to a central spiral staircase down to the main hallway and living area on the lower ground floor. ‘I am confident that this house in Bowdon will become an architectural landmark – albeit one that most people will never see.”

 

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‘While Jerry was fixing his driveway, he noticed a metal grate he had never seen before. Intrigued, he tugged on it and discovered it was actually a trapdoor. What he found inside was more astonishing than he ever imagined.’

 

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‘Underground at Disney World are the vast tunnels and mazes of the Disney utilidors. The utilidors were constructed after Walt saw a Disneyland Frontierland Cowboy moving through Tomorrowland during his route to work. Walt was all about maintaining the illusion and magic, and an old timey cowboy in the future ruined that illusion. When Walt was planning Magic Kingdom in Florida, he came up with an idea to maintain the illusion of each themed land while helping staff and materials make their way around the park. The utilidors were constructed in a large circle underneath every land located within the park, with a section going through the middle and directly underneath the castle.’

 

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‘I ran into the Hal B. Hayes residence, formerly in Hollywood, California, which Popular Mechanics Magazine described as a House For the Atomic Age. Ever practical, the magazine notes how Mr. Hayes designed the house to withstand or flex against the stresses of an atomic bomb blast. The outer walls are “fluted to resist shock waves” and the large front glass window, pictured above, will sweep away in the same blast. There is a secret underground sanctuary accessed only by swimming underwater, as well as another hidden underground room equipped with bottled oxygen.’

 

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‘Relieve your daily stress at Unusual Underground U2 a hidden subterranean attraction in Osaka, Japan. Choose from 20kg or 25kg of stuff to break and enjoy! Price is all inclusive. No need to bring anything just a towel to wipe your sweat after!’

 

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‘Two teenaged boys, ages 18 and 13, found themselves so bored during Covid lockdown that they stole money from their parents and built an underground movie theater in the vacant lit next to their Connecticut family home. Speaking from the incarceration facility when the 18 year old is spending a year, he said, “Yes, we missed going to the movies. There is this vacant lot by our house that’s been vacant for twenty years or something, so my brother and I just thought, ‘Wtf’ and built a movie theater underground there. but it ended up taking us much more money to complete than I anticipated, and we go caught. We spent a lot of time getting all of the components right … there are four speakers in the ceiling, in addition to capacity for five more around the room. The screen ended up at 130” (330cm), so the whole thing really envelops you. It wasn’t worth it, but it rocks.”

 

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‘You may have heard stories about people renovating their homes, only to stumble upon a secret room. Perhaps it’s a play room? A cellar? A place to stash sensitive documents and treasures? All that mystery can be pretty scary yet exciting. But back in 1963, a resident of Nevşehir Province of Turkey found a secret room behind one of his walls. This secret room led to a tunnel … which led to an incredible discovery: the ancient underground city of Derinkuyu. Derinkuyu is not the largest nor oldest underground city. But at 18 stories, it is the deepest.’

 

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‘The Underground Home was the brainchild of Jay Swayze, a Texas home builder with a knack for understanding the fears of the American public. The demand for ultra-secure dwellings and fallout shelters in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis spurred Swayze to start the Underground World Home Corporation, and market his product with a full-size model home at the 1964 World’s Fair. The 12,000-square-foot home was built inside of a 15-foot ditch near the New York Hall of Science, and was extolled by The Wall Street Journal as “a new frontier for family living.”

‘Fairgoers willing to pay the admission price of $1 for adults or fifty cents for children could make their way down a staircase into the ten-room residence, but what they stepped into was much more than just a bunker. The Underground Home’s luxurious living room was decked out with a Steinway & Sons piano and a “terrace” and a combination of real and fake plants lent the space an airy feel despite its subterranean location.

‘So the million dollar question (or rather the $80,000 question, as that was the house’s pricetag at the time) is, did Jay Swayze destroy the home after the World’s Fair, or is it still there after all these years underneath what is now a soccer field? In 2012, journalist Nicholas Hirshon took a deeper look into the mystery with his article “Is it Down There?”. The piece chronicled the efforts of people like Dr. Lori Walters, a professor, and Steven Quinterno, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, who believe that the home may still exist below Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

‘Walters pointed out that her goal was not to dig up the site. “Ground penetrating radar would be a non-invasive first step to determine what might remain of the underground structure,” she explained. “Soil type may not permit us to conclusively determine the structure’s existence. The goal is not to uncover the Underground Home nor to provide full access to it. The greatest extent of exploration would be through an endoscopic camera and should that reveal an interior that is traversable, I am proposing a small robotic device that the children could navigate and explore.’

 

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‘Some of the Jorvik Viking Centre underground ride is interesting but the smell and feeling inside the main area was overwhelming and claustrophobic. I didn’t understand until reading through the reviews that the smells are part of the experience. If anyone is sensitive to sensory overwhelm I would recommend to avoid this attraction. If you don’t enjoy it, you can’t leave when you want to. I was desperate to get out and had to use a lot of patience to wait until the ride ended. My abrupt description would be it felt like a touristy ride through a weird fake village with overpowering smells that made me feel nauseated and claustrophobic.’

 

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‘In September 2004, French police discovered a hidden chamber in the catacombs under Paris. It contained a full-sized movie screen, projection equipment, a bar, a pressure cooker for making couscous, a professionally installed electricity system, and at least three phone lines. Movies ranged from 1950s noir classics to recent thrillers. When the police returned three days later, the phone and power lines had been cut and there was a note on the floor: “Do not try to find us.”‘

 

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‘Soon its name will join the ranks of Britain’s great stately homes. Already, in the most elite of circles, it is being whispered in awe: ‘Witanhurst. Do you know it?’ The residents of London’s Highgate certainly do, for this mammoth property has caused an ongoing row, as planners have repeatedly rejected lavish plans for its development. The Georgian-style mansion is London’s second-largest private residence, after Buckingham Palace.But following a short-lived renaissance in 2002 as home to the BBC’s Fame Academy, it had been allowed to decay. Now, the planning issues having been resolved, it is being turned into a modern-day Xanadu, the palatial mansion immortalised in the film Citizen Kane.The glittering 65-room palace will include 25 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms and an imperial walnut-panelled Grand Ballroom. A vast two-storey subterranean extension will almost double its size, making room for a 70ft swimming pool, sauna, hairdressing salon, massage parlour and a huge cinema suite. Diggers are carving an enormous cave beneath the house, which will make the property just 2,000 sq ft smaller than Buckingham Palace. Staff accommodation and a 25-space car park will complete the £50million expansion. Mystery shrouds the mansion, however. For despite being the size of ten generously sized detached homes, nobody knows who owns it.Indeed, it is said that even Robert Adam, the celebrated architect behind this extraordinary project, does not know who his client is. He receives his instructions via an intricate web of companies and advisers, designed to give the owner absolute anonymity.So just what is Witanhurst and who is behind it? It is perched above North London, on the verdant hill of Highgate, an ancient village that is one of the capital’s most sought-after addresses. Overlooking Hampstead Heath, the area once was home to the highwayman Dick Turpin, and philosopher Karl Marx is buried in the nearby Victorian cemetery.’

 

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p.s. Hey. ** jay. It’s a goodie. Yeah, hm, I’ll wait to see if a ‘Longlegs’-specific mood arises. It easily could. Psst: that raised eyebrow gives you power. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Yes, the film stuff is just kind of beyond belief terrible at the moment, and my suffering is its offshoot. I’m seeing ‘Twisters’ this afternoon, and my thoughts about it, you bet. (It probably won’t be a whole more than ‘fun’ or ‘only sort of fun’, but we’ll see.) I don’t know if it’s the Olympics, but Paris is stinking more than usual. Love just needs to set up a profile on the masters/slave sites, and his wish will granted very quickly. Love hiding from me in the basement, G. ** Lucas, Hi. Yeah, it seems to be o.o.p. in English now, which I didn’t realise. I wish there was a way to interpret dreams without getting all mystical or Freudian or symbolist. Oh, gosh, I’ve been to so many hundreds of haunted attractions, they end up kind of blurring together. I make these posts showing the haunted attractions I’m most excited to check out every year, maybe that would help? Here’s the one from last year. Wonderful about your family members’ acceptance! Was the visit yesterday with one of them really interesting, I mean did you guys talk about it, or was it just understood and relaxingly not addressed, or … ? That’s totally normal: phases where you overthink things, especially when you’re in evolution mode, and you’ll find the right spot in your thinking and forge ahead, I’m completely sure. For now, don’t sweat it. Totally regular. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. I loved the latest PV episode (of course). It had a really nice wavering zippiness to it. That opening Beau Wanzer track is a total find. Loved the L-Vis 1990 track. What’s the track where the voice sample says ‘it is is is’? I loved that, the Shackleton, African Ghost Valley, the whole thing. Another notch in the old belt, maestro. Nice shirt, yeah. Really pleasing yellow and blue hues too. ** Dom Lyne, Okay, sorted. Being looked at like you’re crazy has its charms. Yeah, precisely: what you said about script vs. fiction. You know. Very interesting form. Nice being excited about it while not feeling totally comfortable in it. Hugs/love back. ** Uday, Interesting. Thanks. I’m a bit allergic to writing that relies on the psychological. I do my best to avoid it. Seems like just a generalising emergency exit in most cases. Enjoy your American friends and the ‘seeing everything anew’ via their innocent eyes aspect. That’s always interesting. Haha, a rich guy three decades older than me would most likely either be mentally incapable or judged mentally incapable of making decisions about the their fortunes unfortunately. But, hey, benefactors come in all ages, or they must? ** David Ehrenstein, I did know that about Fassbinder, probably from you at some past point. I did have a Cammell Day. I think it’s too recent to restore, but I’ll check. ** Cletus, Really glad you liked it. Yeah, it’s a lovely book. ** Malik, Hi! Those are wonderful stories. And the contrast with your grandad, totally. It’s interesting and strange how aging turns people into these storehouses of very specific knowledge and very particular narratives — the wise older person holding forth and all of that. Life’s so weird. (Obvious thing to say.) You’re working on a new theater piece, am I remembering correctly? I hope you had a very inspired, output-y day, whatever you expelled. ** Steve, Have fun with he podcast, or, rather, I hope you did. I look forward to overhearing. ‘Twisters’: Because I actually really like disaster movies as opposed to only feeling somewhat curious about other blockbusters. I also want to see it in 4D, and that needs a theater. I think we’re finished with festival submissions. I think the next option is trying to find some kind of distribution and letting them decide/help with the film’s public face, but I don’t know, we’ll see. Thanks! ** Misanthrope, Oh, right, ‘I could walk 500 miles’. Those bros must be very rich if they signed the right contract. That song just will not die. Ear isn’t better, but maybe it’s trying to be. Early happy b’day to Mr. Alex. And to you too, you pedo. (Haha, joke, need I say). ** Deisel Clementine, Weird to think of people reading the blog on the bus. I like that. Yes, the first fiction I ever wrote was a 1000+ page ‘fanfic’ placing my friends and enemies and the faculty at my school in a ‘120 Days’-like narrative. I had to burn it, as you probably know. What you’re imagining is not so far from what I wrote in that juvenilia, but mine was a lot more XXXXXX-rated. Congrats on the ooze acing. I knew you could do it. Yes, you can certainly email me a copy, but just know I can be very, very, very slow. Exciting prospect! Reading your thing, not the slowness part. ** Prze, Hi. I don’t own property, I’ve worked every day of my life, I’ve had lifelong money problems, … you’re making a lot of assumptions about me and my work and thinking pretty strictly within those assumptions, and I’m not in the mood to argue or defend myself, so just think what you think about me and my work, and let’s leave it at that. ** Poecilia, Thank you. ** Thomas H, Hi! Oops, sorry I missed your comment. My pleasure about the post, of course. Yeah, amazing rich time, movement, generative progress, etc. My tolerance for Franco is super low — although he was really good in ‘Spring Breakers’, and that’s pretty much it for me. In the ‘River’ film he basically just stitched together existing footage, so there’s no Franco footprint in it really. Let me know what the Reeves/Miéville book is like. I sort of can’t begin to imagine what that’s going to be. The French police, or maybe it’s the army (?), carry machine guns around with them here on a normal basis, so it’s not so unusual other than there being a ton more of them right now. They’re usually just in the train stations and so-called ‘dodgy’ areas. Thanks, I’m very much hoping for a week of turning around too. What else are you hopefully happily up to? ** Harper, I noticed the US publisher of ‘Ingrid Caven’ liked the post on Facebook, so that means they’ll re-up it into print. Oh, god, sorry about the landlord and, just as much about your asshole ex-roommate. They’ll just fade away, but that doesn’t help right now. Ugh, sorry, pal. ** nat, No big. Thanks, glad it settled into you. Hm, so does your reader think the bikini implies, I don’t know, something too politically based or something? Test your instincts. Theoretically, it just seems like a nice, jumpy detail to me. Your town is labyrinthe? That sounds exciting, I gotta be honest with you. I love letting things in other mediums influence my writing. You have to transform them to use them, so there’s no rip-off worries, I think? I’m almost never clear about where my novels take place except with rare exceptions, but everyone can tell they’re happening in LA because of all the cars and stuff, and I like that. If surroundings don’t interest you that much, don’t force it, I say? Biggest day ever to you! ** Charlie, Good, good, about the experimenting and the trusted support! So great and so lucky to have an interested friend whose brain you can trust. I think if performers could turn their lust and erections on and off with the snap of a finger, it might be possible to attempt a ‘Citizen Kane’ of porn, but they can’t, not even with help from Cialis and meth. I don’t know ‘Way Down’, but obviously I will hunt it. Curious. Thank you, Charlie. ** Justin D, Hi, Justin! I think today your mix-tape will finally unfurl in my ears, or at least in my good, non-clogged ear. Film festivals, and I know I’m generalising, are really a racket. They want you to think what they’re looking for is something new and original and exciting, but they aren’t. It’s all very political and compromised, and if something comes in that doesn’t have some kind of official show of approval or pre-existing clout already in place, you don’t have a chance. For instance, one of the big festivals that rejected our film said they really liked the film, but they rejected it because it didn’t have French theatrical distribution in place yet, and they didn’t want to support a film that they’re weren’t absolutely sure would have a wide release and make them look good for having supported it early on. It’s a racket, like I said. The new film has gotten a lot stronger, more positive response from festivals than ‘PGL’ did, but not enough to make a difference. My day was pretty drab. But hey. ‘Au revoir les enfants’: nice. Maybe I’ll try that. Me too: bring October on this very fucking second! ** Oscar 🌀, Hi. More kick, exactly. I used to chew Doublemint in my youth. I feel like everybody did. Is it a dead duck? I can’t tell over here in France. Haha, being alternated with ‘Brat Summer’ just may be the greatest compliment I have ever received. No wonder he’s a preacher. Today I command you to walk by this no doubt fine establishment @ 1 Kilmarnock Road and wave at it in a friendly manner as you pass. Awesome about the email directive. I hope your commanded walk today filled you with vigor and pride. ** Okay. Today I’ve made a sequel to an old post that outlays some underground buildings (mostly houses) for you to view and think resonantly about. See you tomorrow.