One page of the Parlor that has just sort of sat for a long time is the one formerly called Michael Curry and Victoriana. There has been a slight change...
...to San Francisco and Victoriana.
The Victorian houses in San Francisco were what Michael Curry's company, Great Expectations, specialized in restoring. I have wanted to discuss Victoriana and its role in shaping Michael Curry's life and career. It's a path that, in a strange way, led him to a day in 1989 when he drowned in the icy waters of San Francisco Bay, only to accept a purpose put to him by long dead women, the Mayfair Witches. Once accepted, the 13th Mayfair Witch, Rowan, rescued him by pulling him out of the water and onto the deck of the Sweet Christine.
It was at this moment that he uttered a word that turned out to be a name. To recall what that was, Michael Curry was able to reach out to the skipper of the vessel, neither of which had been known to the public, and ask if he could board this vessel. He wanted to use this ability he had mysteriously acquired, the ability to see things by placing his hands directly on objects, to see if the vessel's deck would tell him what it was he'd said.
Although Rowan's house was in Tiburon, now called Tiburon-Belvedere, she had taken her boat, a 40 foot cabin cruiser (small yacht) named the Sweet Christine, out on the bay that day in 1989. It was something Rowan often did since the passing of her adopted parents, Ellie Mayfair and Graham Franklin. Well, when she was not in the operating room.
The home Rowan had shared with her adopted parents was, in terms of modernity, in sharp contrast to the Victorian houses in San Francisco Michael Curry specialized in restoring. It was certainly in stark contrast to the mysterious old New Orleans mansion Michael Curry had seen as a child, had seen in his vision when he had been dead, and which he later described to Rowan when she agreed to meet him and take him aboard the Sweet Christine.
San Francisco seems to be a place of beginnings in both the Lives of the Mayfair Witches and the Vampire Chronicles. It is also where Anne Rice's literary career began in 1976. It is a city central to the life and work of Anne Rice, and the Parlor would like to talk more about it.
It also comes with an added bonus: a discussion of San Francisco and its appearance as a setting and a filming location for movies dating back over 100 years. One such film will be discussed on that page of the Parlor as an added bonus. Please keep checking this page of the Parlor. I hope it finally grows with some fascinating tidbits about Michael Curry, Victoriana, and the role of San Francisco in the Lives of the Mayfair Witches...