Boogie avec le Marquis le Marquis’ Intimate Diary

WEDNESDAY, 6 DECEMBER, 2000, NEW ORLEANS
So I’m doing the web site for the Shim Sham Club in the French Quarter, and I’m at this meeting late last week, and I’m disk-doctoring the computer there because I’m lovely and helpful and friendly, and during this lengthy process, I’m listening to a conversation between the owner and the manager about a little incident that took place the other night in the backstage area of the nightclub. I have heard many creepy stories about one particular corner of the backstage area from many people who work there, or have played there.

“So did you hear that Benji almost quit last night? He was really shaken up. He went to use the little bathroom backstage — guess he had to take a crap or something — and he’s sitting in there and the doorknob starts rattling. And he’s all ‘Fuck off, Matt!’ thinking Matt Vaughan was messing with him. The rattling kept going and Benji threw the door open angrily and Matt wasn’t there. No one was in the backstage area at all. So he’s all ‘Fuck dude, I’m so outta here’…”

Shortly after, I’m asking him for photos and other raw materials I can use for the web site, and in light of the previous conversation, he starts rummaging around his desk: “There’s this photo I have somewhere of the front area where there’s supposed to be another ghost. I think it’s been documented since the Louis Prima days — oh wait, here it is…”

Ghost in the Shim Sham

Pretty cool, huh? Is that how a ghost gets captured on film? I’m not convinced. Then yesterday my darling friend Laura H. emails me from some silly place in the midwest (Sorry, Laura darling, the midwest is a silly place) with some pictures she thought that Melusine and I might enjoy. She was taking photos in the dark with just a flash, for locations for a film she’s working on and when the prints came back, this was the result:

What the hell?

And then of course this frisky little fucker…

Chill out, maaan!

None of this is conclusive of course, but I find it rather fascinating in a sort of X-Files way. So I’ve decided to start a collection. Anyone have strange photos they’d like to send me out of the kindness and weidness of their hearts? Please, by all means, go right ahead.

SPEWWKEEEEE!
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