Last Day at the Velvet Casket

Extinguish the black candle, put away the planchette, and dab your eyes with your favorite lace hankie the color of ravens’ wings. As part of the cursed I-35 expansion, Austin’s gothic salon is taking flight, leaving lovers of the strange and unusual bereft of this velvet-covered sanctuary from the bleaching horrors of the Texas sun. Come in your finest, funnest funeral attire to bid farewell to this midnight-blessed center to all things macabre. Tip the glass of one last beverage and help lighten the load of the resident vendors before they have to pack up their crates like Nosferatu stealing away into the night. Richard Whittaker