Peladan at the Guggenheim

[ecosophia]

Bright gods. One of my readers just dropped me an email to let me know that the Guggenheim will open an exhibition on June 30 on the Salons de la Rose+Croix of Josephin Peladan, the astonishing 19th century French decadent, magus, and art critic, whose writings -- for all his posturing, political incorrectness, and other irritating features -- taught me a huge amount about how to be an operative mage in a modern society.



Yeah, that's him. He didn't inspire my beard -- I grew it before I heard of him -- but his style was as outlandish in his time as my beard and ponytail are in our post-hippie era.

The detail that matters here is that by the 30th, I'll be a single three hour train ride from the Guggenheim...

Other details on the exhibition can be found here.

Comments

3 hr train ride

[(Anonymous)]

Boxes??? Bubble pack??? 3 hr train ride to NYC?? Moving?

Re: 3 hr train ride

[ecosophia]

Yep, yep, yep, and yep. ;-)

Re: 3 hr train ride

[(Anonymous)]

Congratulations! I hope your new home is a happy one.

Re: 3 hr train ride

[(Anonymous)]

Geez, please tell me you're not moving to New England. Sigh. The Confederacy will NOT be exchanging ambassadors w/New England in the future. ;)

[yuccaglauca]

Hmmm. My guess is Lancaster, PA.

[ecosophia]

Nope, though Lancaster is a really pleasant town. When I was there for the Peak Oil class reunion -- er, podcast with Jim, Dmitry, Chris, et al. -- I enjoyed it a great deal.

[yuccaglauca]

Darn, guess I'll just have to wait until you announce it--if you announce it, that is. If you're anywhere in Connecticut, you should let me buy you a drink sometime before I leave New England.

[haydarkhan]

Somewhere in Vermont?

[jc127]

I think it's too easy if we aee allowed to guess a whole state, it has to be town by town!

My guess is Albany NY, bacause of the trains...

Jon

[neonvincent]

If so, that would make him a neighbor of James Howard Kunstler's.

[(Anonymous)]

This is beyond cool. You wouldn't happen to know if there is an English translation of "Comment on Devient Mage" available somewhere for those of us who do not speak a word of French? I have wanted to read that for quite some time...

Sven E.

(I don't have an OpenID account, so I'll just use the anonymous function for the time being.)

[auntlili]

My guess is that you've secured a teaching position at Miskatonic University and will be living in the charming village of Arkham. That's three miles by train from NYC, is it not?

[ecosophia]

I wish!

[jjensenii]

A friend (and fellow ADR-reader) and I have independently come up with the guess that you're moving to Maine so that you can make a quick getaway to Canada should things here go pear-shaped, where you'll build an ice fortress from which to toss maple syrup at those who doubted your prophetic skills.

OK, that last part was just my personal fantasy. A little JMG fanfic, if you will.

Either way, enjoy the lobster!

[(Anonymous)]

You're moving to the northeast, I'm surprised that it's not somewhere in Lakeland territory. I'll be interested in hearing about it and why you decided to relocate there. Looking at Amtrak routes, and knowing it's not Lancaster, I'm thinking Albany, NY or Springfield, MA. New London, CT is a possibility too but since you've warned about the hazards of coastal living in our age of climate change I'm doubting that you're moving there.

[ecosophia]

The relative hazards of living near the coast vary on the basis of local geography and, in particular, height above sea level. What I've noted repeatedy on my blogs is that it's probably not a good idea to live within 50 feet or so of sea level. I'm following my own advice. ;-)

location advice

[(Anonymous)]

My grandmother always cautioned against living on the low ground. She hated our house in Roseville, CA because even the two inch difference between our yard and the next door neighbors meant we had standing water during heavy rains, and one year our natural gas floor heater was flooded out. The soil in that area is heavy clay and hard pan. We were only a few miles from Lincoln, which still has the Gladding Macbean clay works that produces sewer pipe, roof tiles and the terra cotta building tiles used on many art deco era buildings. Currently live on the high side of the American River. When my mother worked for a state office on the low side they were told that if Folsom Dam broke their only chance was to drive south as fast as possible. Earthquakes, dams, under-maintained highways; fun in California even when you are inland.

[kashtan]

So I guess New London it is then. I looked it up on Google Maps terrain view and saw that it rises in elevation rather quickly from the shore. Most of the town would be high and dry even at the point when much of the state of Florida is uninhabitable. I guess living on the coast does have some advantages if you're above the level likely to be flooded any time soon, still I wonder what impact the destruction of infrastructure (I imagine that train line must go through low-lying areas) and mass migrations of people from lower to higher ground will have on the whole regions of coastal states. I don't know enough about port infrastructure to know how the shipping trade will adapt to rising sea levels.

Oh, and this is Ozark Chinquapin from the old blogs, and I also posted the previous "anonymous" post, now I got a dreamwidth account.

[ecosophia]

Nope! More once we arrive and get settled in.

[malo14]

Tossing out Providence RI. Population just under 200,000; elevation 75'; walk score of 79. Need to take the latter with a grain of salt, but looks very walkable. And just a tick over 3 hours from NYC on the Acela Express.
Long time ADR reader, but lurker in terms of posting. This little guessing game is fun though---have learned some interesting things about places in the northeast.
Good luck with the move, and yes, you will survive the packing and unpacking. ;-)