Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Van Cortlandt Park Weirdness

A week ago, as I was walking from my abode to the Woodlawn station of the 4 Train (on my way to Brooklyn), I took a... uh... nature walk... yeah, that's it, in Van Cortlandt Park. I walked into the park far enough from the traffic of Jerome Avenue to... uh... try to see some wildlife, when I saw a bizarre object (poorly photographed below by yours truly on my phone camera):



It's impossible to tell from my overly bright photograph, but the object is a stick, wound with ribbons, festooned with large "jingle bells", and surrounded by empty mason jars. While certainly not an intimidating display, it was a bizarre one, one "premeditated" enough to suggest some obscure ritual function (scorn pole? a VPR?).

The bizarre objet immediately reminded me of Karl Edward Wagner's horror tale Sticks, which would seem to be the inspiration (although I don't know if it was acknowledged) for the wooden figures that feature prominently in the Blair Witch Project. The story itself was inspired by a tale told by pulp artist Lee Brown Coye, who often incorporated sticks or lattice-work in his illustrations for "weird" tales.

I apologize for the lame photo, and will return to the scene to take a better one- hopefully, the object/installation won't be washed away by a sudden flood...

6 comments:

  1. I think I set that up decades ago, in memory of a lost tee shot...
    ~

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think I set that up decades ago, in memory of a lost tee shot...

    Tee bagger!

    It was just north of the Lew Rudin golf course, now that I think of it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Is Lew Rudin g.c. Mosholu?

    That's all I remember playing...Van Cortlandt and Mosholu.

    Certainly they were both urban park experiences, Mosholu far more so. I remember a time when we had to skip the 7th hole (or perhaps the 8th...it was a short par 3) because the neighbors were having a barbecue on the green.
    ~

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thought for a second you were going to find a corpse, & this was about to become an episode of Law & Order BBBB.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Croquet??

    I apologize for the lame photo, and will return to the scene to take a better one- hopefully

    You know they're counting on that, don't you?

    ReplyDelete
  6. You know they're counting on that, don't you?

    I'll bring my pet spidergoat as backup!

    ReplyDelete