The History and Lore of Ouija Boards
As the Internet becomes increasingly cluttered with accumulated pop cultural detritus, it’s refreshing to rediscover a site like The Museum of Talking Boards that stands the test of time (even with it’s very 90s looking mouse-trailing planchette.)
The online museum chronicles the history of talking boards, also known as ouija boards, spirit boards, witch boards, and channeling boards. While the history presented on the site is fascinating and well-researched, the Museum’s pièce de résistance is the gallery of nearly 100 lovely examples of talking boards, both vintage and modern.
Also delightful is the page of ouija board superstitions which includes gems like this:
A Ouija Board will scream if you try to burn it. People who hear the scream have less than thirty-six hours to live. There is only one proper way to dispose of it: break the board into seven pieces, sprinkle it with Holy Water then bury it.
And don’t forget, there are three things you must never ask a ouija board:
- Never ask about God.
- Never ask when you are going to die.
- Never ask where the gold is buried.
The Victorian Romantic Tarot
It’s been a while since I posted and I almost gave up on this blog all together but I keep running across the most fascinating things on the web. Like the Victorian Romantic Tarot deck put out by Karen Mahony and Alex Ukolov. The deck is a nod not only to the lost Victorian aesthetic but to the growing neo-Victorian art scene of today.
Visually stunning and with a hint of fin-de-siecle sensibilities the Victorian Romantic Tarot makes a decadent addition to your divination collections.
There’s a YouTube video that shows most of the cards in the deck if you’d like to take a look before purchasing a set for yourself. You may want to turn the volume off though.
Madame Talbot’s Victorian Lowbrow
(image: Madame Talbot’s Victorian Lowbrow on Myspace)
I was recently reminded of Madame Ashleigh Talbot’s stunning Victorian Lowbrow work while browsing Kirsten Anderson’s Right Some Good blog. Madame Talbot uses her substantial talent to make gorgeous framed curio exhibits, handmade books, hand-illustrated posters, mourning dolls, and more.
Madame Talbot’s creations are composed of items like vintage velvet, century-old paper, and bits of real bone, teeth, and hair. Although her primary implements are needle, thread, and her own hands, she counts among her tools a vintage typewriter from the early 1900s.
Her site and art celebrate:
Sideshows and the Elephant Man, Victorian era tattooed ladies, strange medical exhibits, dime museums and East End shows, the cult of death and the funeral rituals of the lower classes, pubs, bars and saloons, public executions, titillating scandals involving death and betrayal, morbid legends such as Jack the Ripper and Lizzie Borden, the penny dreadful, Victorian drugs such as Opium dens, Absinthe rituals & Wormwood deliriums, Morphine syringes sold to High Society women, Chloral Hydrate fiends, Laudanum addicts, Secret Hashish Societies, laughing gas parties, and patent medicines.
(image: Framed Witchcraft Curio Exhibit by Madame Talbot)
My favorite objects are the lovingly crafted pieces in the Curio Exhibits section, like the Civil War weeping bottles and the test tubes intended to hold the final dying breath of a loved one. The description that accompanies each curio exhibit is as delightful as the exhibit itself.
Madame Talbot also sells wonderful vintage items, like an engraved mausoleum key and mostly empty bottles of medicinals and poisons.
Many dozens of unique objects are available on Madame Talbot’s Victorian Lowbrow site and some of her less pricey work can be purchased in the Madame Talbot eBay Store.
Zombies Are the New Bunnies
Just in case you haven’t heard, zombies are the new bunnies, and Etsy crafter Tina Seamonster has all the gear you need to commemorate this shift in the order of the universe. Pictured above is one of her full color “zombies are the new bunnies” cards, complete with an angry green bunny who thinks Easter zombies are “crap.” Guess he liked things the way they were before.
By the way, if Tina’s zombie looks familiar, you might remember her design from the zombie plague holiday cards mentioned in my list of handmade gifts for zombie lovers.
Easter is March 23, 2008, so get thee to the Tina Seamonster shop at Etsy if you don’t want to be stuck sending cards emblazoned with cotton-tailed rabbits and baby chicks. If cards aren’t your thing, you can also pick up a refrigerator magnet, t-shirt, or necklace decorated with the “Zombies are the new bunnies” motif.
On Set Interview With a Hot Tiefling Babe and a Gay Gnome
Wizards of the Coast has is releasing the 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons which has caused a massive up tick in Internet geekery. Even conservative bloggers best known for hard line stances on the War on Terror have fallen prey to the woman repelling excitement for this new incarnation of man-childery.
Wizards of the Coast are helping fan the flames of D&D players nerd passion by producing the following video featuring a sports bra clad half devil being interviewed about the new game, while the much hated, and in this video rather flamboyant, Gnome character class discusses his demotion to mere monster status:
There’s a higher quality version here for those of you who are even now lamenting that the picture quality wasn’t good enough for you to get a screen shot of your new fantasy girlfriend. They also created this amusing interview with dungeon dwelling stand by The Beholder which you’re sure to enjoy.
Although I honestly don’t see what all the hubbub is about. What kind of person cares about D&D when a new expansion for Warhammer 40,000 is due out in a matter of months?
Only nerds my friends, only nerds.
Omen Antiquitatum
The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society is known for producing quality Lovecraftiana for live action role players as well as we aficionados who simply enjoy decorating our abodes with those reminders of the mind shattering horrors that lurk just beyond our feeble senses. One particular offering I am currently lusting after is their Omen Antiquitatum, or Elder Sign, supposedly based on the works of John Dee.
The real life John Dee probably never encountered the malevolent gods of Lovecraft, but for some reason Dee is a popular figure in many of the mythical stories told about the equally mythical Necronomicon. The HPLHS pays homage to the late Dr. Dee’s invisible influence on our imagination with their magnificent version of Dee’s Elder Sign carved into copper just as occult manuals of old instructed would be sorcerers to.
The sign itself bears more than a passing resemblance to John Dee’s Sigillum Dei Aemeth lending an air of occult authenticity to the piece that few other Lovecraftian props can match. At under $40 it’s a steal you can’t afford to miss. Get it from the HPLHS Bazaar.