Viva Monstero!

Monstero! used to be one of Georgetown's most distinctive street characters. A photo from the art walk in July, the month before some asshole set the car on fire:



Last night Monstero!'s keepers, Willow and James Fulton, threw a Day of the Dead benefit party to help with car's recovery fund. They celebrated with alcohol and fire.











The eyes of Monstero!























The party was held in the Miller Building, also home to the lovely Georgetown Pharmacy.



I got my Halloween candy there this year. I chose the good stuff: Kit Kats, Whoppers, Reese's.



(Holy crap, we kept the baby out until 1 a.m.!)

Photos from Last Night's Haunted Brew House Tour

For the second weekend in a row, Theater Off Jackson is presenting haunted tours in the old Rainier Brew House. I took the 8 p.m. tour on Halloween night. (You still have a chance to go if you're free tonight!)



First I milled around and drank some Manny's while waiting for the tour to start.





TOJ and Friends of Georgetown History teamed up to create a presentation of old Comet Lodge Cemetery materials, including grave rubbings and photocopies of old articles.





Some of my neighbors live on ground that used to be the baby section of the cemetery.





This old photo shows how big the cemetery used to be. A bunch of houses stand there now.



They also posted a photo of the Brew House back in its glory days. It's worth the tour admission just to see the inside of this building -- the music and performances are bonus.





The performances were fun, though. This guy strung solid metal rings together with the help of some magical Rainier beer.









And up the stairs, Ensemble Sub Masa played spooky songs.





The accordionist (my pal and former Eastlake neighbor, the lovely Marchette!) wandered among the crowd like a ghost.



I spent the rest of the tour trying to stand as still as possible to get photos of the dark empty spaces.









Though some of them weren't as empty as they first seemed.







I was one of a couple tour stragglers, both us of fighting over who got to be last one so we could get good shots of all the creepy shadows. Sabey's Jim Harmon patiently waited for us to finally make our exit.















After I finally left, one of the TOJ folks directed my attention to this old poster that Sabey provided for the event. She even showed me how to use the flash on my camera (someday I will learn how to use that thing!) so I could get a picture of it.



"Malt Rainier -- The pure malt tonic for mothers who require additional nourishment and strength."

I hope the Manny's I drank last night has a similar effect. Because it's a heavy burden to be in charge of a baby who measures up in the 99th percentile of CUTENESS.



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Related Posts:

* Daytime photos of the Georgetown Brew House

* Last year's Georgetown Haunted Tour

* About the Comet Lodge Cemetery

KUOW Story About Comet Lodge Cemetery

KUOW is running a story about Comet Lodge Cemetery right now. You can hear it on the archive at minute 0:43.

They just mentioned that residents as far away as 26th and Graham talk about seeing spirits, especially those of children, in their house. (I live closer to the cemetery than that. Eek.) There also have been reports of evil spirits roaming around. They're saying it's an active, restless place.

From the KUOW website (note that there's not actually a dog park there):

At 2:50 p.m. – The Comet Lodge Cemetery
Land is hard to come by in the Seattle area, but this isn't a new problem. Beginning in 1927, parts of Comet Lodge Cemetery were sold off. More than 800 people were buried at this Beacon Hill site. Now, there are only about 20 gravestones left. Houses stand on old burial plots and there's even a dog park on cemetery land. Mercedes Yeager runs Market Ghost Tours in Seattle's Pike Place Market. And she just learned about the Comet Lodge Cemetery recently, including stories of hauntings that so many nearby residents talk about. She shows Jeannie Yandel around what's left of the cemetery.

The KUOW page links to an old post I made about the cemetery, here.

Sunny Afternoon in Columbia City

An Anchor porter at Lottie's Lounge.



Love the old license plate holders.



Ten years ago I hitched to work every day. I paid cash.







Smoked tukeys.



Gather has a beautiful neon art installation of found letters from signs. It's shocking how many brands you can recognize just from the font and color. Like the "a" from Radio Shack.



The "x" isn't really an "x." It's that Cingular character thing.



This target will one day grace the roof of artist Jeremy Bert's Boulevard Park home. If you don't see it at Gather, you should be able to see it from a nighttime flight in or out of SeaTac.



(I just now realized that I've admired Jeremy's work at McLeod Residence before.)

Then a trip to the last Columbia City Farmer's Market of the season.







This is what I bought.



I doubt there will be a day this nice again for the rest of the year.