A perfectly fiendish destination for a far east vacation, the city of San Zhi is said to have been a proposed resort town for the nouveau riche of Taiwan’s booming 60s economy. Apparently a series of unfortunate accidents claimed the lives of so many workmen the place began to be shunned by potential vacationers before it was completely finished, so now it sits unused and abandoned. The ghosts of the workmen who died “in vain” constructing the unfinished city are said to haunt the place, perhaps stalking visitors in Grudge-like fashion.

Web Urbanist has a list of other abandoned cities, some closer to home if traveling to Asia doesn’t fit your budget, that are equally delightful. And devoid hopefully of vengeful ghosts.

A tip of the chapeau to WebbAlert.

via Ephemerist

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.

From the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists comes Beast Blender, a Flash driven virtual taxidermy studio that enables you to create your very own legendary creature or cryptid. There are dozens of parts to blend, from an alligator’s tail, to a mosquito’s wing, to a black rhino’s horn, and each part can be flipped, resized, and placed independently.

My dismal first attempt is pictured above – I managed to convince myself he’s got a Beetlejuice sandworm thing going on.

Driftwood.

An ancient forest in the heat of a summer afternoon.

Shelves full of old books.

The smoke of burning maple leaves.

These are some of the extraordinarily specific scents Christopher Brosius has captured in his collection of decadent and delightful perfumes, accords, and home sprays. His mission is “to give you a pleasure you never thought possible” by capturing and bottling all of the world’s pleasant scents. His approach to aroma is part science, part art.

At any given time, there are up to 400 hand created accords on display at CB I Hate Perfume, Brosius’ Brooklyn gallery. You can purchase a single accord, or arrange for a custom blended perfume made without any alcohol. Many of the ready-to-wear scents are also available online.

For those not able to travel to the gallery, the online shop offers detailed descriptions of each accord, accompanied by the story behind each scent. Brosius’ inspirations are also evident in the literary references that pepper the site.

His Chemical Series of perfume accords contains scents that truly underscore the link between aroma and memory. The series “captures the scents that symbolize technology, industry and man-made objects.” At first this may seem bizarre, but imagine the nostalgia when you catch a whiff of a smell from your childhood – a fresh new box of Crayolas or sun tan lotion, for instance.

If you feel that women should smell like Britney Spears Fantasy and men should not enter a room unless preceded by a cloud of Drakkar Noir, then CB I Hate Perfume probably isn’t for you. But if old paper and autumn leaves or spring flowers, wet dirt, and moss tickle your fancy, take some time to explore the CB I Hate Perfume online perfume shop.

A weekend of neo-Victorian festivities sponsored by Dances of Vice will take place in New York City next month. From the Dances of Vice site:

We invite all modern dandies, decadents, aesthetes, artists, thinkers, and dreamers to join us on February 8th and 9th for the 2008 Dances of Vice Festival in New York City!

The festival will include live music headlined by cello rock ensemble Rasputina. Other highlights include a vintage Polaroid photo booth, a live Victorian fencing demonstration, puppet operettas, and a costumed ball.

via Phantasmaphile

One dentist has opted to alert her clientele to late night hours with a series of advertising posters designed by Adville to look like campy horror film posters.

The ad campaign announces the 6pm – 2am availability of Patty Ross, DDS, also known as La Contessa Nocturna and The Dentist of Darkness.

Now if only this would catch on, maybe we’d have somewhere to go at 2am on a Tuesday after getting our teeth cleaned and hitting the 7-11.

via Neatorama

Bannerman’s Island is home to the most beautiful examples of modern architectural decay I have ever witnessed firsthand. Bannerman’s Castle was built by military surplus dealer Francis Bannerman as a storage warehouse in the early twentieth century. The words “Bannerman’s Island Arsenal” were proudly displayed in 4 1/2 foot lettering on the building’s facade, thus popularizing the name “Bannerman’s Island” for the tract of land more properly known as Pollepel Island.

The European-style fortress was Francis Bannerman’s hat tip to his Scottish heritage. He personally designed every turret and embellishment, every curved wall that became part of Bannerman’s Castle.

The island sits in the Hudson River, just a couple of miles south of the Beacon-Newburgh Bridge, and can be seen from the window of the train if you’re heading to Poughkeepsie. Bannerman’s Castle has remained vacant since the Bannerman family deeded the property to New York State in 1967.

The castle first sustained serious damage in 1920 when some of the stored arsenal exploded, sending portions of the building and the island itself cascading into the Hudson River. A mysterious fire laid waste to all of the island’s buildings in 1969, and with each passing year, nature reclaims more of Bannerman’s Island.

The state of New York still owns Bannerman’s Island, and the parks department has designated The Bannerman Castle Trust as the official “friends” organization. Members of the trust are attempting to secure the funding and resources required to preserve and stabilize the buildings on the island.

While the Internet is rife with images of Bannerman’s Castle, most pale in comparison to Shaun O’Boyles stunning and evocative photographic essay, Bannerman’s Island. The above images are selections from O’Boyle’s work, which you can support by purchasing a high quality, fine art print from his site. For more on the island, see:

A History of Bannerman Island

Bannerman Island Arsenal (Hudson Valley Ruins)

Hudson Valley Ruins: Forgotten Landmarks of an American Landscape

Lost in New Jersey on Bannerman’s Castle

Bannerman Castle (NY) (Images of America)

Thanks to BLDGBLOG for recommending Shaun O’Boyle’s photography of modern ruins. Shaun’s photographs are, if possible, even more memorable than the castle itself.

A nasty hepatitis A outbreak in 2003 was the beginning of the end for the Chi-Chi’s chain – the last U.S. restaurant closed its faux Southwestern doors in 2004.

But the Chi-Chi’s legacy lives on in the abandoned cantinas that remain in dozens of mall parking lots across America, and the Creepy, Abandoned Chi-Chi’s blog is there to document each and every fading hot sauce mural and squatter’s pallet. Many of the restaurants are like eerie Tex Mex ghost towns, the strands of tacky colored lights still hanging forlornly from the ceiling, begging for suburban explorers to stake their claim.

via Slashfood

With Halloween behind us, it’s time to start conjuring up activities to help stave off the inevitable Christmas nonsense that starts earlier and earlier each year. A trip to The Castle Halloween, perhaps?

Located in Benwood, West Virginia, The Castle Halloween Museum is a year-round ode to all things Halloween. But this is no haunted house – The Castle Halloween is a thoughtfully curated “archaeology of Halloween and its periphery in facts, fiction, and fantasy.”

The scope of the collection is 1860 to the present, and the content ranges from antique postcards and signs, to folk art and movie collectibles. There are more than 15,000 individual Halloween artifacts in the Museum.

photo credit: Akron Beacon Journal

Check out the virtual tour on The Castle Halloween Web site for more photos of the collection.

Castle Halloween is run by Pamela Apkarian-Russell, the official Halloween Queen®. (Yes, she trademarked the moniker in 2003. Note to self: register a trademark that makes me queen of something.) When she’s not writing books and selling antiques, Pamela spends time amassing what may be the most comprehensive showcase of Halloween-themed exhibits in existence. But call ahead – the Museum and associated research library are open to the public by appointment only.