RESURRECT DEAD ON PLANET JUPiTER

The City is Full of Ghosts

Considering the number of hours I devote to the local internet and especially considering my lifelong love of the subject of the subject of this post, I’m shocked and amazed that I haven’t seen David Kessler’s, Shadow World before.

Sometimes I forget what it is that I love about this city. Sometimes all I can see is the fear and not the strange illumination and beauty that exists beyond that fear. I have 2 things to post. One is a letter sent to Weird NJ magazine in 1998. Here that is:

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The Illuminating Being of Deserted Philadelphia

What we saw wasn’t in New Jersey, but I know two NJ guys who will tell you about it.

My younger brother and I were returning home from a Yes concert in Philadelphia in the early ‘70s. We missed the bus and found ourselves stranded at the Philly bus station in the early hours of the morning. We decided to walk around because it looked too dangerous to catch any Z’s – might have gotten robbed or worse while sleeping.

Where we were seemed scary and deserted, with closed down stores, bums flat out in the streets, very dark and gloomy old buildings; it seemed like no man’s land.

We decided to head back to the station when we passed this alley. We were walking at a fast pace and blew by it, but we both looked down the alley and saw it. It looked like an old man with white hair and a beard. He was wearing a black robe with hands outstretched to the sky in between these buildings. From his hands, face and head came a bright light that went straight to the sky – like beams! It looked like he was communicating with someone or something.

We stopped dead in our tracks about two paces from the alley and looked at each other. I said, “Did you see that?” My brother said “Yeah!” We dashed back for a good look, and in a second, this illuminated being transformed into just another bum. When we peered back, he was crouching in the corner, huddled on the ground, staring at us. We both knew what we saw and this guy knew it too. I could tell by the way he looked at us, like he was deciding our fate. We ran back to the bus station (and we didn’t sleep, either!). Has anyone else ever seen this guy… or thing?

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The second thing is David Kessler’s Shadow World series. If you haven’t seen it, see it. [link]