Linda organized a Necromancer show and dinner at the Seccaspina family-owned hotel.  Here's my daughter Laura entering:

The hotel has quite a history.  It was built in 1872 and called the Mississippi Hotel because the Mississippi river is close by.  No, not THE Mississippi, just some local little Mississippi.  It saw some of the rowdy times of the period, and some of the sad, being a TB hospice at one point.  I remember it when I moved into the area as the once grand building become a seedy strip joint attracting bikers.  Then it shut down and stood empty for 10 years...and then went through a number of owners until the Seccaspina familty bought it three years ago, renamed it the Greystones and have been working to restore it.

Linda wrote up the full history on her Zoomers blog. (Having trouble linking - see http://connect.everythingzoomer.com/profiles/blogs/architecture-sto...)

There are memorabilia on the walls, and some of the original china in a display case (no photo).

Here's a shot of the dining-room, with the Necromancer's set-up at the front.  This shot was early in the evening - later the place was jam-packed.

Lots of Linda touches to the decor - the middle shot is a vase with black-feather bouquet, and just beyond is a jar of home-made Italian pickles.  The pink thing at the right is a little baggy of chocolates.

 And here's the lady herself, talking about the hotel:

 Hah!  And as the menopausal woman from the corn, she announced that if anybody had any complaints to bring them to her, since everything was her fault.

And here's a teeny bit of video where she's referring to its TB days:

And we three who attended.  Our friend Deb brought her "Emergency Tarot" and did mini-readings (free) for some of the other people at our table.  And, honestly, Laura and I were enjoying ourselves despite appearances.

The food was excellent - minestrone first, then a choice of crusted chicken, spicy Italian pork or vegetarian lasagna.

Dessert was a ouija-board cake!

After supper came the show.  This is some of the necromancer's paraphernalia:

Sorry, no pictures of the act.  That would be giving things away, wouldn't it.  Besides, too many heads in the way.  However, I was bemused by his opening with a singing bowl.

There was some stuff about the four elements, and a black candle to absorb any negativity and a white candle to attract the spirits and then a send-off of lingering spirits to the Summerland...and at the end he cleansed the place with some burning sage.  Kinda Pagan if you ask me.

The act itself was fairly standard stage magic dressed up with references to spirits and talk about murders and some famous medium and...well, more sound than substance, but he was a showman and held everyone's attention.

Next came a medium/psychometrist who a boring spiritualist-church shtick (somebody's granny had a special cole-slaw recipe, somebody else's dead relative was showing her a fallen birch tree, etc.)  She psychometrized ten sealed envelopes given to her before the performance, so we didn't even see or hear from the owners of the objects as to whether the medium had got any hits. 

She had said that afterwards she'd wander around among the tables and do quickies, but her ten envelopes sucked up all her time.

Out in the hallway were a couple of tarot readers.  But we had Deb and her cards with us in case of need.

A shot of Laura as we left, entertained and well-fed.

Great door!  Great evening!  Looking forward to Linda's coming up with some more theme nights!