Tag

wanderlust

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The Wandering Taphophile Returns: A Cemetery Bucket List

Being possessed of a transient heart, I can whittle my bucket list into something that generally revolves around travel and experience. This is only ironic inasmuch as I am fond of staying home on my couch, until I'm not: until I've crammed a week's worth of clothes into a backpack and hopped on a plane to go adventuring -- to see what I ordinarily wouldn't see. I'm in the planning stage of another two trips -- three if you factor in DragonCon 2017. Two of those adventures are taking me back across the pond to Europe, venturing a little deeper into the land whe[...]

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There and back again: Facing fear in real life

I write horror. This is the usual response I give people (delivered in a flat tone, because it's hard to gauge how they'll respond) when people ask what floats my boat. I've been met with a variety of reactions, but the most frequently recurring are the following: You must watch a lot of horror movies. I do, but I'm a chicken. I often won't watch them alone, and I would prefer to have someone burly next to me whose shoulder I can cram my face against during the scary parts. I often have trouble sleeping for weeks afterwards. You must have some strange stuff in yo[...]

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Travelling Weird: La Isla de la Munecas

Over the past few days, I've been having the "horror" discussion a few times with a few different individuals. What is it? What makes it appealing? Does all horror fall under the same umbrella? Where do you draw the line between the things that creep and the things that scare versus the things meant to titillate and disgust? I think it's all relative -- we draw from experience and expand the lens on the things that dig into our history both as individuals and collectively. What scares me might scare you, but maybe not. In the effort to overturn a few rocks, to p[...]

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Travelling Weird: The Bone Church of Prague

Some people keep their skeletons in their closets. Other people turn them into decorative art? A few days back I bit the bullet and purchased my plane ticket to Europe. It'll be my third trip across the pond, and every time I go, I venture a little farther. It's been previously stated that I'm big into visiting cemeteries amidst the art museums and various nooks and side streets, but I'll take on the occasional cathedral if it's there. (Notre Dame was in my way in Paris, really. When you're standing under it's massive shadow and don't have anything better to do -[...]