A (Belated) Mayfair Christmas Dinner In 3D

If you read the description of the video, you will see that this particular video is now the single most difficult I have ever made.  Not because Christmas dinners make me cry (they don't), but because of numerous problems with software, which still gave me grief even AFTER I upgraded it. 

Merry Christmas from Come Into My Parlor!

 

A Wee Bit of a 3D Mayfair Witches House Update Teaser

The Parlor has been pretty busy with a lot of things, but aren't we all at this time of year?  Not all of it has been good, though, so having something to escape with means my 3D model project of the Mayfair house--1239 First Street in New Orleans--has come a long way.

Progress on the Parlor 3D Model of 1239 First Street For Christmas!

Have a look...

Happy Holidays!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

The Mayfair Witches Dining Room

As Thanksgiving is near, I thought I would put together an update on the 3D model of the Mayfair house at 1239 First Street focusing on the dining room.  The actual dining room has a panoramic mural that continues along the walls, and in the Lives of the Mayfair Witches, this mural is described as being that of Riverbend Plantation.  This plantation is where the Mayfair Witches settled upon their arrival in Louisiana after having fled Saint-Domingue on the eve of the Haitian Revolution.

Mayfairs In 3D

Happy Halloween! A Parlor Special...

Happy Halloween!

This is perhaps the only time of year I feel is appropriate for unveiling this particular 3D model of mine.  It is the Mayfair tomb, which is set to be located in Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, New Orleans.

New Orleans: Colonel Short's Villa

 

The Parlor and AI

It's been a few weeks since I've checked the Parlor's Twitter feed, but I have found updates from SAG-AFTRA and WGA regarding the strike and another topic: AI.  I've shared the tweets on the Parlor's Twitter feed. 

3D Model Goes Inside First Street

 

I am all kinds of excited!  I've finally gotten to a point in the project where I can provide a major update on its progress!  Much more detail has been added to the 3D model of 1239 First Street.

Le Musée de f.p.c.

One of the things I'd like to do with the 3D model of 1239 First Street is to display items made from the descriptions of them in Anne Rice's novels.  I've already added the first of the framed portraits used for cover art, such as the painting on the cover of Blood Canticle.  The cameos from the front and back of the dust jacket of Blackwood Farm appear in GIF images on the Parlor.  Of course, the Mayfair Emerald was made from descriptions of it in The Witching Hour, and now, I have been working on a model of the emerald key featured in the AMC series.

The Parlor Has Some Goodies and an IWtV Season 2 Update...

The Parlor has been hard at work with building the 3D model of 1239 First Street!  Not only is it to help bring the world of the Mayfair Witches "to life", so to speak, the hobby itself can be calming when world events are in a state of total horror and chaos.  Very soon, I intend to make some brief videos of the model to show the details, but I'll give a few brief teasers here...

One More Double Parlor Detail...

...the baseboards.

Details of the Double Parlor

 I was looking at the photos of the double parlor at 1239 First Street that had been taken in the 1930s and in 1964 earlier.  Every detail I focus on says even more that houses like this one are unique.  Even though they're something of an architectural polyglot.  Even the fireplaces are interesting!

The Parlor In 3D Updated

The video of Update 3 of 1239 First Street In 3D is now embedded on Come Into My Paralor In 3D.

1239 First Street In 3D

The Files on the Mayfair Witches--UPDATED

The Files on the Mayfair Witches here on the Parlor's blog will be back soon!  Of course, the main website is always available!

A New Tidbit on Saint-Domingue

As we head into Labor Day weekend in the US, here is a new piece of information I've put on the History and the Mayfair Witches page.

Parlor Roots--Let's Talk Genealogy

When you visit some of the pages of the Parlor, those pages might have a bonus section at the bottom, before the footer, called ~Parlor Roots~.  I've set this section apart in its own section from the main area of each page it will appear on as I have with occasional factoids and funsies.  These bonus items are set in their own section.  They aren't necessarily a direct part of the discussion on the Mayfair Witches, but can possibly provide an additional perspective on the topic of that particular page.

Updates and New Pages on the Parlor

To the utter relief of the Parlor, Tropical Storm Hilary has come through with destruction surprisingly minimal.

Commentaries on the Works of Anne Rice

I've added some additional resources to the Anne Rice Commentaries page.  In addition to books written about Anne Rice and her work, there are several where one chapter or section discusses Anne's work.

Mayfair Family Tree Graphics

I have been focusing on other areas of the Parlor lately.  However, there's a lot to say about the Mayfair Family Tree.  I like to make graphics that are appealing, creative, and help present the topic of the page.  So, I have a couple of new graphics on two of the family tree pages.  Here is an example of one:

The Parlor Blog Menu; Fan Fiction

The Parlor on Fan Fiction

There are a few things I want to discuss, so this post might be long.  My favorite.

I'm kidding!  Anyway...

Mary Beth Mayfair

I've made a new version of the animated portrait of Mary Beth Mayfair.  It has the floating rose petals and a music clip from the countdown clips for the AMC series.  There is something subtle but different from the first version I made of Mary Beth Mayfair.  Can you guess what it is?

Stella Mayfair "Sings"-Techno Flapper

I was animating Stella Mayfair on cutout.pro, and got curious to see what Stella looked like up close and animated...

...and THIS happened:

Mayfair Funny Pages

For giggles, I decided to redo a brief little short video I made when the Parlor began massive renovations.  I added a little sound, as well.  I also wanted a better image of the Egyptian Keyhole doorway with the signs and sleeping cat on a doormat that says--well, look here:

Remembering Anne Rice

Amid a bunch of other things I had to do, I've finally gotten to this very important task.  A Celebration of Life for Anne Rice is still in the planning stages.  When you go to Anne's official website, though, it will look a little different.

Click the Image to go to Anne's new landing page

Anne Rice's official website is still online as an archival site while it is being redesigned.  It has a new landing page, where you can sign up for updates on Anne's Celebration of Life to be held in New Orleans, date TBD.  The updates will be in an email newsletter.  

Click the Image to go to The Dinner Party Show website

You can also sign up for the newsletter of The Dinner Party Show podcast by Christopher Rice and Eric Shaw Quinn at the same time.  If you are interested in discussions about true crime, this might just be for you.

The podcast has discussed the murder of William Arnold "Billy" Newton, Charles Starkweather, Al Capone, David Berkowitz, and the Boston Marathon bombing, among others.  

The Parlor has made use of the Wayback Machine on Internet Archive to get an archival snapshot of the site before it was overhauled earlier this year.  I was never in a position to be able to subscribe to print newsletters Anne Rice had for her fans before things were done online.  I wish I had been able to, but wasn't.

If people still have copies of these newsletters, scanning them for upload to the Internet Archive would be an excellent way of continuing to make them available to fans across the world.  Now that Anne is gone, these newsletters can provide an excellent source of research, especially since they provide the perspective of Anne herself.

To be honest, I haven't looked at Wayback Machine specifically since archiving the Parlor pages before overhauling the entire website.  I do love Internet Archive, though, as there are so many things you can find on any number of subjects in multiple formats that can't be found anywhere else.  Once I'm finished here, I think I'll go on over there and have a look, see what I can find.  

But I need to make sure to finish up here, first, because once I get there, I know I won't surface again for...mmmm...several hours...

The Garden District on Project Gutenberg

I discovered that a book published at least as long ago as 1972 that shows 1239 First Street can be read on Project Gutenberg.  It is The Great Days of the Garden District by Martha Ann Brett Samuel.

Patterns in Chaos

To give a better idea of what a restoration of a house like 1239 First Street would have been like, I've created a new kind of image gallery, a slideshow.  The images came from Estately.com, and are of recent restoration work on the Morris-Israel house at 1331 First Street.  Both houses, while not identical, are similar in a lot of ways.

House of Patterns

When you look at the House of Patterns page, it will look...slightly different.  The thumbnails are a tiny bit larger.  But when you click on those thumbnails, the full size images are now quite a bit larger.  With the exception of this one:

Have a Look at Mona Mayfair

On the Mayfair Witches page, only two of the portraits were still images.  Now, there is only one.  This is Mona Mayfair's portrait as its been up until now...

Witches In History--Salem and the Mayfair Witches

I've begun the process of researching for a new special page to add.  This new special page will be about the Salem Witch Trials.

The Mayfair House--First Street

There has been a lot of interest in the Mayfair house since the premiere of the AMC series.  So, I've added a few things to Inside First Street and House of Patterns.

Amelia Street and Belle Grove

I managed to find a video on YouTube that gives a tour of the Amelia Street house at 3711 St Charles Avenue.  You can see more detail of the house and from different perspectives, which is really fascinating.  So, I've added the video to the Parlor playlists on YouTube.

The Parlor In 3D

Just a Few Notes...

For those who might be confused about how to navigate the Parlor, I've added screenshots to give a basic tutorial on the Parlor Policy page.  Hopefully, it isn't too confusing!  What I really wish I could do is build a navigation menu where every page is organized.  Unfortunately, Tripod does not allow me to make a change like that, so I had to get creative.

The Parlor Turns 15

 

The Legacy Mayfair Witches

As a rule, family trees can be a bit tricky to read.  Especially when it's the family tree of the Mayfair Witches.  So, I've made an attempt to show the line of the Mayfair Witches who are the Designees of the Legacy from Suzanne To Rowan Mayfair.  

Commentary on the Works of Anne Rice (and some updates)

Parlor Dumpster Fires...

For the last day or so, I have been going over each page of the Parlor, making sure all the code and hieroglyphics were correct, and found...

The Poem From Lasher and Some Music

I put together a video that shows the poem from Lasher, and laid the text over brief Mayfair Witches GIFs that were converted to MP4.  I managed to find some of the music used for the little clips used for those countdowns, the ones with the flowers.  I would loooooove to know how those were made because they are beautiful!

A Little Redecorating...

I made a few changes (again) to the galleries on the website.  I decided that instead of entire separate pages of galleries of things like dining, Victoriana, which give us an idea of certain aspects of the characters and the world they live in but are not the most essential information, I would make them video galleries.

The Mayfair Galleries

The page about Amelia Street seems to be a very popular one.  So, I wanted to take a moment to assure you that the image galleries will be back very soon!  There are a handful of pages on the Parlor site that have image galleries.  Or they just ARE image galleries.  Those are coming back very shortly (whyIoughtasuesomebody...)

The Mayfair Family Tree--More New Stuff

As I've said, one thing I have noticed is a lot of interest in the Mayfair family tree.  I can certainly understand why.  With what we now know about what our DNA can tell us about who our relatives, our ancestors were and are, it's certain to have raised all kinds of new questions about how our DNA tells us these things.  Certainly, not everyone has gotten a pleasant shock from DNA test results.  We've learned things about our genetics that has caused us to approach our family trees in new ways, forced us to ask difficult questions.

The Mayfair Witches Family Tree~Mona Mayfair Page Begun

I've been doing a lot with the family tree of the Mayfair Witches.  We know a lot about genetics today than we did when the books were first published, beginning with The Witching Hour in 1990.  I have used my family tree maker software to not only build the tree, but also to calculate relatedness. 

As you can imagine, the software has its own names for relatives and degrees of relatedness.  On a tree like the Mayfair tree, this can be problematic because of how many inward twists and loops the tree makes between the same individuals.  Like this:

For Michael Curry and Rowan Mayfair, I have hourglass and extended family charts on their individual relatedness pages, one that has Lionel Mayfair as Antha Mayfair's father, and one with Cortland Mayfair as Antha Mayfair's father.

Mayfair Relatedness~Rowan Mayfair

Mayfair Relatedness~Michael Curry

The software also wants to tell me about Morrigan Mayfair, Michael Curry's Taltos daughter with Mona Mayfair.  And Mona Mayfair is described as a "twentyfold" Mayfair.  I am certainly going to see if I can get the software to tell me more about this twentyfold thing, but I thought I'd also include Morrigan Mayfair (on her own page).

Until then, I've begun the page on Mona Mayfair, which is by no means complete...

Mayfair Relatedness~Mona Mayfair 

As stated on Rowan Mayfair's Relatedness page above, don't be shy; if you have any questions or you'd like to make a suggestion, alert me to an OOPSIES, I can be reached by old fashioned email at:

mayfair_95@yahoo.com

Because Lycos ate my webmistress@comeintomyparlor.com email 

If You Have Not Seen the First Street Family Gallery...

...you may see it here on the main website: First Street Family Gallery

New Orleans Architecture

I've updated the houses that appear on Italianate Greek Revival in New Orleans Gallery.  There are a variety of houses in New Orleans that are similar to the Brevard-Rice house.  Hopefully, I'll be able to add more soon...

Yer Hostess Is In A Bit of Shock At the Moment...

So, I was putting a new little section for the AMC series filming locations on the Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches on AMC page, which now has a whopping two locations in New Orleans...

And I stumbled on something in the article on Distractify that I was looking at that lists the series filming locations.

The Family Tree Does Not Fork. Much.

I have updated the Mayfair Relatedness page.  A lot.

Some Updates Here and There...

There have been even more changes, updates, and things to mention on Come Into My Parlor.  If you look on some of the pages of the site, such as Blackwood Farm and Blood Canticle, you'll see a different divider on it.

Or two.

The Mayfair Family Tree

One thing I have noticed is the interest in the genealogy of the Mayfair Witches.  So, I have been making some preparations to go into the subject on a deeper level.

World of the Witches

I kept forgetting this one, but when you go to the main navigation menu and click on World of the Witches, it will open the page that gives an overview of Rowan and Lasher's trip from the US to Britain and Europe before returning to the US and Rowan's eventual escape in Houston, Texas.  Except the maps that were once on the page haven't been for some time.

Patterns in Chaos

I've done a little redecorating on the Patterns In Chaos page.  The page mainly discusses the restoration of the Mayfair house in The Witching Hour.  The AMC series had the Soria-Creel house's exterior fit with the condition of the Mayfair house when Dierdre Mayfair died in the novel.  In one of those brief featurettes about the making of the series, the use of the green inside and out was meant to give the impression that the overgrown chaos that was the Mayfair garden was slowly consuming the house as well.

The House on First Street

Added to the Exploring New Orleans Architecture page is a brief section on The House on First Street by Julia Reed.

New Orleans Architecture--Updated

Another new page!

Amelia Street Gallery Two

I've added a second gallery to the Amelia Street page.  One difference you'll notice right away is that the kitchen appears to have been redecorated/renovated/remodeled at some point between listings.  The same seems to have been done with at least one of the bedrooms.

Amelia Street

I spent quite a bit of time on the Amelia Street page.  As I make my way towards distinguishing the two houses from one another, I decided to add some additional images and details about the house on St. Charles Avenue.

History in Color

An Update For Architectural Enthusiasts...

...is that what it's called?

Anyway.

Something I have been anxious to do for weeks now, I managed to do.  A lot of my time over the last several weeks has been focused on site navigation, which I hope makes it much easier for people to navigate the site without having to scroll, click, click, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, click, scroll, click, click, scroll...

Blast From the Past: Anne Rice's Message to the People of the Page

As I was getting the original site ready to update and and link to this blog, I found this link on the original Parlor Chat (now the posts on this blog).  This was uploaded to Anne Rice's YouTube channel on September 27, 2011.

The Original Website and Some Episode 4 Musings

I have been busy with the next phase of this project that is a rebuild of the original website, Come Into My Parlor.

Blog Progress and the AMC Series

I've been freshening up pages on the blog that came from the original site with things like new graphics, more resources, etc.  I've got a ways to go with that, but in the meantime...

Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches on AMC: Some Glimpses

Under The Library, you will find a new page, Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches on AMC.  It is a collection of clips from AMC's YouTube channel about the series.  Enjoy!

The Parlor Remembers Anne Rice

I have redone my memorial video for Anne Rice, paying tribute to her by remembering her through her work.  I've added a few things here and there to improve upon the original as well.  The original is still available in the Parlor and First Street in 3D playlists on on YouTube...

The Animated Gallery

I've created and uploaded the animated GIFs of the rest of the Mayfair Witches.

Take a look!

A Gallery of Witches

I've combined graphics by Jennifer Harris and Javi Trulove Sims with some AI and 3D graphics of my own to create a portrait gallery of the Mayfair Witches and added music from the film, Interview With the Vampire (1994). 

Take a Look...Fun Stuff

I've begun a fun little project.  For images of each of the Mayfair Witches, I found some artwork by Jennifer Harris of the characters she made in Second Life.  The faces I've blended so that it's easy to tell these women are related, and then animated them!

Katherine (no Julien yet) through Rowan are up so far.

Good Afternoon...

...The Mayfair Kitchen is up.

That about covers the pages from the original site that could be redone here.

Before I begin restoring the photo galleries (there are actually three), I'm going to be scouring the links that were transferred here from the original site.  Some of them are to pages on websites where the page no longer exists, sometimes because the site no longer exists.  I just went through the Mayfair Links page doing exactly that.  There are new links to add...lots of them!

Another Few Hours Later...

One more page done.  This one is the page 1239 First Street Sold (Archive).  It is a collection of real estate information on the Brevard-Rice house compiled from multiple sites listing the house.  I believe it's from around 2009.  There are more photos I have saved from real estate listings that I hope to add soon.

A Few Hours Later...

...a bit more progress.  The Witching Hour - The Mayfair House is up, with a hiccup or two.  There are several pictures that I'm having a hard time getting to a position that would reduce the amount of scrolling.  Maybe I should have kept the list of links to other pages on the site about the house at the top...

Progress...

In the last week or so, I have managed to reconfigure this blog and either recreate and/or redesign pages from the original site.  Those can be found in the drop down menu above.  I've moved some things around, broken up some of the sections of pages into separate pages, and I'm still chasing down each and every link to make sure they work.  There are several, so I might have missed a few, but I'll find them!

Major Renovations to the Parlor...