So just having read Chris Knowles' blog post -
Pray for Us Shimmers
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| Elsa Pataky as Bruixa del Nord |
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| Natalie Portman in 'Annihilation' |
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| Dunwich as seen in a flyover in 'Tidelands' |
It takes place in Dunwich, a fictional town in Massachusetts.
It is considered one of the core stories of the Cthulhu Mythos.
In the isolated, desolate, decrepit village of Dunwich, Massachusetts, Wilbur Whateley is the hideous son of Lavinia Whateley, a deformed and unstable albino mother, and an unknown father (alluded to in passing by mad Old Whateley, as "Yog-Sothoth").
Strange events surround his birth and precocious development."
"Dunwich Cemetery is a heritage-listed cemetery at Bingle Road, Dunwich, North Stradbroke Island in the City of Redland, Queensland, Australia.
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| Dunwich Horror by Onychuk |
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| 'Tidelands' scene shot in the Dunwich Cemetery? |
It was built from 1847 to 1952.
It is also known as One Mile Cemetery.
It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
The first burials at Dunwich cemetery are believed to date from 1847 and it is one of the earliest surviving cemeteries in Queensland."
The Dunwich Horror and Whippoorwills as Psychopomps of the Dead?
Elsa is also the short form of ELISABETH, by the way.
I wrote that old Titans post in the link above mentioning Elsa and the 'Tidelands' show and I just got news today that the NRL kicked the coach of my club out of the NRL.
I am not a happy boy right now, as Shane is one of my heroes.
When I was a kid sometimes the football team would go on an end of season camping trip and we would camp in tents not far from Amity Point, which reminded me of the town in the movie 'Jaws', so I would stay out of the surf unless I was fishing.
I also find it amusing that Spanish actress Elsa Pataky plays the queen of the Tidelanders on Stradbroke Island, as there is an urban legend about a Spanish galleon that was wrecked on the island before the British claimed Australia for themselves.
The Stradbroke Island Galleon
I used to work with an Indigenous tribal member of Stradbroke Island named Steveo and one day I remarked to him that the way he plated his hair made him look like a Spanish pirate and he told me that his tribe had offspring to some Spanish sailors who got shipwrecked on the island before the English got there.
Man dead after falling from jet ski near South Stradbroke Island
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| In real life 'The Courthouse Restaurant' |
Cleveland's addition to the haunted register
"So, to our ghost - the courthouse was purchased as a private residence in 1882, & continued as such until it was converted to tea rooms in the 1960's.
"So, to our ghost - the courthouse was purchased as a private residence in 1882, & continued as such until it was converted to tea rooms in the 1960's.
In the late 1970's, a very ambitious project was undertaken by the owner to expand the property for use as a restaurant, for which the site has been utilised until the present day.
Best summed up on the Brisbane History website, "Stories of the Old Cleveland Courthouse Ghost" (a middle-aged woman in a white gown, her dark hair gathered in two tight buns over her ears) have circulated for generations.
No one knows for sure who she is, but most people believe it is Francis Bigge's wife, Elizabeth. The spectre is normally well behaved, content to amuse herself tapping staff and diners on the shoulder or blowing gently in their ears but she has been know to lose her temper on rare occasions, hurling items about the restaurant, switching lights on and off, fiddling with taps and causing valuable pictures to crash to the floor without, curiously, the glass in the frames ever breaking."
A quick look at The Courthouse Restaurant website provides more information, "Mrs Elizabeth Bigge is said to still wander the premises.
She died of hanging in England, but her spirit has returned to the place where she was the happiest.
There have been many sightings, as she seems to just co-exist peacefully, whilst keeping a watchful eye on the place when we are not here...""
Chris Knowles in “Sync or Swim” // Jack Kirby, Black Magick LARPs & the Siren of the Philosophers
On a personal level I'm very familiar with Cleveland point and the Redlands area, as I used to train right across the road from 'The Courthouse Restaurant' when I used to play junior soccer
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| In 'Tidelands' 'The Devil's Tail' Bar |
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| 'The Courthouse Restaurant' |
for 'The Red Devils'.
While the actual club is in the heart of Cleveland, there was an old soccer field across the road from the restaurant when I was growing up, and we would train Tuesday and Thursday nights there.
The field has since gone, along with the long jetty that used to be at the end of that dead-end street that the restaurant is on the corner of.
So, this area really was my old stomping ground, and I knew Cleveland point like the back of my hand, even though I lived in Brisbane at the time.
I spent so much time there it was like a second home.
I had heard the stories of the restaurant being haunted by a ghost and I have dined there a couple of times with my now ex-wife, but I never saw anything strange going on in or around the restaurant, even though my spidey senses tell me there was something there.
We all like a good ghost story, I guess.
But my old mate Chris Knowles might be interested to hear that the Cleveland showgrounds isn't just home to my old soccer club, but also the annual strawberry festival and the ghost who is supposed to haunt that restaurant is named Elizabeth.
'The Secret Sun' posts with label Elizabeth Fraser
Sync or Swim: You Know This Much is True
While the actual club is in the heart of Cleveland, there was an old soccer field across the road from the restaurant when I was growing up, and we would train Tuesday and Thursday nights there.
The field has since gone, along with the long jetty that used to be at the end of that dead-end street that the restaurant is on the corner of.
So, this area really was my old stomping ground, and I knew Cleveland point like the back of my hand, even though I lived in Brisbane at the time.
I spent so much time there it was like a second home.
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| My old team of devils:-) |
We all like a good ghost story, I guess.
But my old mate Chris Knowles might be interested to hear that the Cleveland showgrounds isn't just home to my old soccer club, but also the annual strawberry festival and the ghost who is supposed to haunt that restaurant is named Elizabeth.
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| Waiting to shake Shane's hand in 2016 |
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| Jaws (1975) |
That was the first time I had heard about the Spanish wreck on Stradie.
This post has become a deeper rabbit hole than I first intended, so I'm going to cut it into parts and continue this post in part two -
Synch, Swim or Shimmer? Part 2
UPDATE: January 1st, 2019
A New Year’s Day swim has turned tragic for two men, with one drowning at Sydney’s Clovelly beach and another at North Stradbroke Island
"The triple tragedy comes as new figures reveal drowning deaths in Australia are up 40 percent compared to the same time last year."
And ...
Synch, Swim or Shimmer? Part 2
UPDATE: January 1st, 2019
And ...
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