Unquiet
Things

So they stripped out all the timber
And they leveled all the land
And they drilled and dynamited
’til they blew the mountains in
I tore down my old homeplace
And I dug up Daddy’s grave
And I relocated Momma to 14 miles away
-“Half Mile Down,” Old Crow Medicine Show

I took a quick trip to Asheville to visit my sister, Mary, whom I hadn’t seen since two Thanksgivings ago. My brother-in-law thought I might like to see Lake Watauga, about which he told me that the singer at the Evening of Appalachian Murder Ballads show said, “Lake Watauga — it’s haunted, y’all.”

I guess the story is that Lake Watauga is a drowned memory, a landscape of loss where an entire town lies silent beneath cold waters. What was once a living community now rests 140 feet underwater, its streets and homes swallowed by concrete and bureaucracy. Families were uprooted, graves relocated, generations of history erased—all to tame a river and build a dam.

When I thought about what such a place might be like, I imagined I could hear the town’s last breath—dead houses creaking, empty windows staring up from the dark, waiting. But in truth, the lake was breathtaking—the clearest water I’d ever seen, so transparent it seemed to hold no secrets at all. I could have easily sunk into those haunting thoughts, let my mind drift with the ghosts beneath the surface. Instead, there I was—being present and appreciative and happy to be alive and living in the moment and all that jazz.

P.S. those boots are the Dr. Martens Chelsea boots and they are so comfortable and I love them so much.

I am not the most efficient or practical packer of travel bags, but I always smell real good. If you’re curious about my perfume picks, I wrote about it on Patreon. The tote, if you’re interested was part of a bundle when Severin Films did a thing for the expanded edition of Kier-La Janisse’s excellent book, House of Psychotic Women. This was sometime last year so it’s no longer available, but you can still get a boxed set of some of the films mentioned in the book!

And re: perfumes, I shared a peek at my sister’s perfume collection over on Patreon, too.

Even more peeks! Here is a little gallery where the dream of the celestial-goth-Pyramid Catalogue -90s is alive at my sister’s home, and the Fairy Wonderland room lives in infamy eternally. On the wall above the guest bed are some artists that you will no doubt recognize! I see Caitlin McCarthy there, a little Nona Limmen print, and, of course, that enormous Waterhouse artwork on both the main wall and the one next to it. There are a few prints by JMW Chrzanoska that we had in our childhood home, and there’s a glamour shot of our mother in a turban! And there’s me, with long dark hair and a hat, from one of our visits to Cassadaga.

While my own bookcases are a riotous jumble of piles and stacks and tchotchkes strewn willy-nilly, my sister’s are meticulously curated and organized. And yes, there are several empty picture frames on those shelves. She’s the kind who spies the perfect frame and will search for the perfect piece of art to display in it, whereas I collect the art first and… never get around to framing it.

And look at that whimsigoth bathroom! Gosh. Spending time in Mary’s always leaves me feeling equally overwhelmed and inspired.

During this trip I also:

◈ Rediscovered my deep love for Neko Case’s Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
◈ Found a novelty claw clip shaped like a stack of Pyrex bowls (you can get it here)
◈ Ate the most delicious sandwich of focaccia, pesto, burrata and charred broccolini at Flour Sandwich Shop. I am absolutely going to recreate this.
◈ Took in an impromptu show at the Grey Eagle and sat next to Moth Man for a spell. La Luz was fantastic.
◈ Saw lots of devastation from last year’s hurricane. It was brutal. I found myself frequently on the verge of tears and completely lost it when my sister started talking about the antique shops full of memories that washed away, and “all the little trinkets floating downstream.” It is still so rough up there.

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