June 17 — July 10

The cold came first, then the pinched nerve arrived to make sure the point landed. Three weeks off the newsletter, which I mention only because the gap deserves an honest accounting and not because I need to dwell on it. The body collected its debt, I paid it, and here we are on the other side of it — mid-July, the summer finally feeling like itself, and more to report than I can reasonably contain in one dispatch.

I'll start with Dark Parlour Society, because something clarified during the weeks I spent mostly horizontal, which is that being forced to slow down and stop producing things creates an unusual amount of room for thinking.

DPS has a new identity statement, finalized and true: a society for exploring Victorian, Edwardian, and Art Nouveau Oakland — through gathering, curiosity, and the historical record. This replaces the earlier "Experiments in Wonder" framing, not because that was wrong exactly, but because it was incomplete. What DPS actually is — what it's been reaching toward since the beginning — is hyperlocal Oakland history. Not the Victorian era generally. Not period aesthetics as a vibe. The specific, particular, documented history of this city during the fifty years between the transcontinental railroad terminus landing here in 1869 and the end of the Edwardian era. The weirdo history. The primary source history. The Oakland Tribune on microfilm at the library, which I have now spent several hours with and which I can confirm contains absolute treasure. "Bustles Are Returning." "Flapdoodle." A Washington woman who sued her corset supplier for $500 and won. This is the material. This is what DPS is for.