Stairs in the woods phenomenon
The phenomenon of coming across stairs in the woods is starting to freak people out.
According to the legends, hikers exploring National Parks occasionally come across full sets of stairs placed randomly in the forest and leading up into the sky at various heights. They describe these staircases as looking as if someone had cut a staircase out of a building and pasted it into the woods. There is never any evidence of other structures nearby; just a lonely set of stairs leading to nowhere. Some report seeing staircases that seem to have been placed on the ground upside down.
Found deep in the woods where no man has been known to ever live, you'll find staircases- no other structure attached to them, just a staircase. While some of the staircases are brick, others are wooden... Users reported that these staircases could be seen sometimes even as deep as 60 kilometers into the forest.
"I came across a set in rural West Virgina. I don’t think I was quite 40 miles deep but at least 10 or better. I thought maybe a house had once stood there but there was no cellar or other debris that would indicate a home was there before. Just a set of stairs with a base that went up maybe one flight — 16 so steps if I remember right. And sturdy. Could barely shake ’em. I didn’t climb up though."
park rescue teams consider this strange phenomena a common occurrence and have been instructed by their superiors to never approach, take photos, or talk about their existence.
The idea for art I like for this topic is a haunted forest image or something that has that kind of feeling to it. Eerie but beautiful, finding beauty in the old and decrepit. Nature taking back manmade structures. Decay and death, but life of nature. I like moss and old rotting wood, fog and spirits. I love the dark forest greens and muted browns. I love the unsettling nature of this phenomenon, I like the uncertainty and the fear of the simple act of walking up stairs. Something so normal in everyday life copy and pasted somewhere it does not belong to make something so innocent so creepy and un-natural.
Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel Hauntings
Hotel staff and guests alike have reported seeing a veiled figure moving up and down the stairs, or seeing a figure in a wedding dress dancing in the ballroom upstairs, pining for the first dance with her husband that she never had.
Millions of guests have checked in, but a few have never checked out.
In 132 years, the popular Alberta vacation spot has allegedly set the scene for horrific murders, suicides, and terrible accidents. Rooms have been boarded up, and the paranormal are frequently recorded.
The bride of the Banff Springs is perhaps the most ‘active’ shadow of the hotel, the story goes that a bride had fallen down a flight of stairs after she tripped on the hem of her dress and had unfortunately passed. Other unexplained apparitions and heavy activity have been recorded in room 873. The room doesn’t actually exist anymore. Apparently, after years of people claiming that they were terrorized in the suite, the hotel decided to permanently seal the room. The room is believed to be the place where a man killed his wife and daughter before taking his own life. Another specter, much less sinister than the others is ‘Sam the Bellman.’ Said to be a helpful, cheery spirit, Sam is often mistaken for a live employee. Another room that shall remain numberless has a story with many variations, but the gist of it is that an entire family was murdered there and ever since, guests in the room have reported being awakened by screaming. When they turned on the lights, they would see bloody hand prints on the mirror.
During the construction of the original wooden hotel, there was a big error from the contractor. A room was built with no windows or doors, a fact that wasn’t even shared with the hotel owner. The room was only discovered after a fire broke out in 1926. Since then, apparitions are often seen roaming the hall outside this room.
The Banff Springs Hotel, as it’s commonly known, first opened in 1888 in Alberta, built by the Canadian Pacific Railway. The city of Banff and the hotel were named after the first European settler in this region of Canada, William Davidson, who was born in Banff, Scotland. Since it’s opening, the hotel has welcomed guests from the British Royalty, to Marilyn Monroe, to Winston Churchill.
"Doomed Bride"
"Sam the Bellman"
I love the aesthetic of old and rotting rooms, objects and buildings. I think it would be interesting to make a piece based off of a eerie and unsettling yet pristine and populated place. The owners and employees of this hotel try to keep the public from knowing the horrifying history and current alleged hauntings. The staff just recently have started to avoid answering questions and act like they don't know about it when dealing with their patrons. This almost makes the hauntings seem more realistic and not just fabricated for publicity. People instinctually find decrepit and "haunted" places scary and unappealing, I find this very interesting, there must have been something in the past that made this an instinctual fear. I like the idea of being able to portray that feeling, being able to create that feeling in people with an art piece.
Queen
Queen is a British band formed in London in 1970, the members include Roger Taylor on drums, John Deacon on Bass, Brian May on Guitar and Freddie Mercury on piano and lead vocals. Before Queen, Brian and Roger were in a band with Tim Staffell named Smile. Tim eventually quit, Freddie; being a fan of Smile at the time encouraged Brian and Roger to try more progressive rock and more elaborate songs. He in turn was recruited to join the band, Freddie then suggested the name Queen and created the new logo. In 1971 John Deacon was also asked to join and Queen was born. They released their debut album named simply "Queen" in 1973, this album went mostly un-noticed by the masses. Their second album named "Queen II" was released in 1974, this album shot Queen onto the top charts in the UK. Their album "Sheer Heart Attack" came out later that year, and in 1975, Queen released their album named "A Night at the Opera". This album brought them international success. On this album was a song named "Bohemian Rhapsody", this song was number one on UK charts for 9 weeks straight, and is still one of their most popular songs.
Estimates of Queen's record sales range from 170 million to 300 million records, making them one of the world's best-selling music artists. In 1990, Queen received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music from the British Phonographic Industry. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. Each member has composed hit singles, and all four were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2005, Queen received the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors. In 2018, they were presented the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Queen released a total of 18 albums, in order of release they are: Queen (1973), Queen II (1974), Sheer heart Attack (1974), A Night at the Opera (1975), A Day at the Races (1976), News of the World (1977), Jazz (1978), The Game (1980), Flash Gordon (1980), Queen Greatest Hits (1981), Hot Space (1982), The Works (1984), A Kind of Magic (1986), The Miracle (1989), Queen Live at Wembley (1990), Innuendo (1991), Queen Greatest Hits II (1991), and Made in Heaven (1995).
Each of the members had other plans for their lives before their lavish careers as Queen took off. Brian May is a published astrophysicist and was going in that direction with music as more of a hobby. Roger Taylor was studying to become a dentist, but he never did finish his schooling. John Deacon had just finished school to become an electrical engineer before he joined Queen. Freddie was in school for design when he joined Queen, the first time he saw Brian and Roger was when they were playing in the band Smile at his campus.
Queen's first show in America was at Regis College in Denver, Colorado on April 16, 1974. Before that the only tours they could get outside of the UK was in Japan. Queen played approximately 700 live performances during their career with roughly two-thirds during the 1970s. There most well known live performance, however; was on July 13, 1985, otherwise known as Live Aid. Freddie's last live performance was August 9, 1986.
On November 24, 1991 a tragedy occurred, Freddie Mercury passed away from bronchial pneumonia due to complications with aids. He was cremated, no one except Mary Austin, his life-long friend knows where he is buried. He left behind his boyfriend Jim Hutton, band members, friends, family and many cats far too soon and far too tragically.
In 1985 Freddie Mercury released his only solo album named "Mr. Bad Guy". In 1987 he released an opera single with Montserrat Caballé titled "Barcelona".
Brian May, the lead guitarist of Queen has only used one guitar for every Queen performance. He made this guitar with his father when he was a teenager and has named it The Red Special.
From 1977 to 1988 Brian May was married to a Woman by the name of Chrissie Mullen (an ex-model), she had 3 kids with Brian named (in age order) Jimmy, Louisa and Emily-Ruth. They dated for 7 years after getting together in October 1969 and married on the 29th of May 1977. 10 years later they divorced. Brian then didn't marry again until 2000, he then married a woman named Anita Dobson and they are still married today. Brian met EastEnders actress Anita Dobson in 1986, and she inspired him to write the 1989 hit 'I Want It All'. Roger Taylor married Dominique Marie Beyrand in 1988 for only one month, however; they properly divorced closer to the year 2010. Roger and Dominique had 2 children together Felix Luther and Rory Eleanor. While married, he began seeing Debbie Leng, and they had three children: Rufus Tiger, Tiger Lily and Lola Daisy May. Roger and Debbie never got married. He then didn't get married again until 2010, when he married Sarina Potgieter, and they are still married today. In 1975 John married a woman by the name of Veronica Tetzlaff, they are thought to still be married today, but we are not sure because John quit Queen shortly after the passing of Freddie and has not spoken to any media since. He has six children with her named Luke Deacon, Cameron Deacon, Laura Deacon, Robert Deacon, Joshua Deacon, Michael Deacon. Freddie was engaged to Mary Austin in 1973, they had met in 1969. Their engagement broke off in 1979. In 1983 Freddie met his future boyfriend Jim Hutton, they started dating soon after this and continued their loving relationship until Freddie's death in 1991.
Brian May and Roger Taylor have continued on with Queen in music and other media throughout the years. They along with Ben Elton have created a musical named "We Will Rock You" using only Queen music with the plot of saving the world with rock and roll. Brian and Roger have also still found a way to keep the tours and legacy of Queen alive without Freddie. They have been touring all around the world with their new show Queen with Adam Lambert. They say they do not want to try to replace Freddie, but to keep his memory alive with allowing others to cover their songs. A big recent step for Queen was also the biography that came out into theaters all over the globe in 2018 named Bohemian Rhapsody. Though this film is not entirely accurate, it has helped keep the band and their legacy alive.
“I won’t be a rockstar. I will be a legend.” — Freddie Mercury
“To me, diva means an extraordinary, outrageously theatrical, brilliant performer.” — Roger Taylor
Queen is my biggest inspiration in life. Especially Freddie Mercury, he looks at life in such an aloof manner in that he does what he does and lets other people do the same. His music was never given a meaning by him, he always wanted the person listening to pull their own meaning from it and create their own fantasy about it. He felt that the number one thing was to be happy, and to never take things too seriously. That's what Queen represents, just have a good time while you can. This idea inspires my art a lot, I love to just put a piece of art in the world and let the people viewing it decide what they want it to mean, I feel like I shouldn't be the one to tell them what to think. I like to evoke something in a person, I just like everyone to decide what that is on their own. I feel that Queen never took anything to seriously, they made what they thought was good, and made it perfect in their own eyes and then released it into the world. That is beautiful to me, creating for the act of creating, not to please people or make them think a certain way.
“Everybody thought I was a bit of an eccentric for wanting to be out there looking at the stars, but I still do.” — Brian May
“Lots of marriages don’t last as long as Queen.” — John Deacon
Other than Freddie's iconic mustache, his most well-known feature would be his smile. He was born with a hereditary dental condition that caused him to have 4 extra teeth in his mouth that pushed all of his teeth to the front of his mouth. This resulted in his iconic overbite. Although he had enough money for the small treatment, he never got it fixed because he believed that his teeth and larger mouth allowed him to have a wider range in his voice and lead to his success.
The last song Freddie ever recorded was titled "Mother Love". He started recording it late in his life when he was very ill and weak. One night he was recording and turned to Brian and told him that he had to stop. He passed shortly after that and never was able to finish recording it. Part way through the song now you can hear the vocals change from Freddie to Brian because Brian finished it for Freddie after he was gone.
Woodstock
Woodstock was a music festival held August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York. It attracted an audience of more than 400,000. Thirty-two acts performed outdoors despite sporadic rain. The festival has become widely regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history as well as a defining event for the counterculture generation. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine listed it as number 19 of the 50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock and Roll. In 2017, the festival site became listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The 32 artists and bands that performed during those three days were Richie Havens, Sweetwater, Bert Sommer, Tim Hardin, Ravi Shankar, Melanie, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, Quill, Country Joe McDonald, John B. Sebastian, Keef Hartley Band, Santana, Incredible String Band, Canned Heat, Grateful Dead, Leslie West & Mountain, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, Sly & The Family Stone, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, Country Joe & The Fish, Ten Years After, The Band, Johnny Winter, Blood Sweat And Tears, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Sha Na Na, and Jimi Hendrix. Creedence Clearwater Revival was the first big-name talent to sign on and gave Woodstock the credibility it needed to attract other well-known musicians.
The Woodstock Music Festival was the brainchild of four men, all age 27 or younger, looking for an investment opportunity: John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfeld and Michael Lang.
Woodstock was a success, but the massive concert didn’t come off without a hitch: Last-minute venue changes, bad weather and the hordes of attendees caused major headaches. The initial plan for Woodstock called for the event to be held at Howard Mills Industrial Park in Wallkill, New York. Wallkill town officials got spooked, however, and backed out of the deal, passing a law that eliminated any possibility of holding the concert on their turf.
With a venue and talent secured, the partners turned to logistics. Fencing, entrance gates and ticket booths needed to be set up and a performers’ pavilion, concession stands, bathroom facilities and medical tents built. By the time people started arriving a couple days ahead of the concert, the fencing, gates and ticket booths still weren’t ready. With no efficient way to charge concert-goers, Lang and his partners decided to make Woodstock a free event.
Originally, about 50,000 people were expected. But by August 13, at least that number were already camped out on location and over 100,000 tickets pre-sold.
As an estimated one million people descended on Woodstock, its organizers scrambled to add more facilities. Highways and local roads came to a standstill and many concert-goers simply abandoned their cars and trekked the rest of the way on foot. Eventually, about half a million people reached the venue.
In 1969, the country was deep into the controversial Vietnam War, a conflict that many young people vehemently opposed. It was also the era of the civil rights movement, a period of great unrest and protest. Woodstock was an opportunity for people to escape into music and spread a message of unity and peace.
Although the crowd at Woodstock experienced bad weather, muddy conditions and a lack of food, water and adequate sanitation, the overall vibe there was harmonious. Many believe hippies were simply living out their mantra of “making love, not war.”
To pick up the slack and help create a safe festival ground, Woodstock Ventures turned to the Hog Farm, a communal pig farm in New Mexico. Its leader, known as Wavy Gravy, threatened to douse people who got out of line with seltzer water or hurl pies at them.
Hendrix was the last musician to perform at Woodstock. Rain delays prevented him from taking the stage until early Monday morning and by the time he went on, the crowd had thinned to around 25,000 people.
Musicians who declined to perform at Woodstock included: Simon and Garfunkel, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, The Byrds, The Moody Blues, The Doors, Roy Rogers, John Lennon, Chicago Transit Authority, and The Rolling Stones.
Woodstock is perhaps best described by Max Yasgur, the humble farmer who lent his land for the occasion. Addressing the audience on day three he said,
I think that the Hippie movement that was popularized during this time really helped the world. I believe in their philosophy of "if it huts no one, do as you wish". I like their freedom and lust for life, they find no reason for violence and believe everyone should just live their lives because you only have one. I find all of these things important for living day to day life and would like to be able to portray these ideas in art so that everyone can live with peace and love in mind.
Vinyl Records
When you investigate how records are manufactured, it’s a minor miracle the format even works, let alone looks appealing. There are so many points at which the process could go awry – and that’s before we even consider the playback procedure, which has its own complications and inherent flaws, such as imperfect geometry and progressively decreasing resolution as the record progresses from start to finish. Yet, despite the complications, the vinyl medium works, and in fact, the manufacturing process has remained relatively unchanged for decades.
Master discs are made from an aluminum core, which is first sanded down to a smooth finish. Then they are coated in a nitrocellulose (nitro) lacquer. Rollers catch the excess run-off lacquer, which is re-used. Once dry, the nitro finish becomes a thick coating similar to nail polish. These master discs then undergo inspection for flaws. Any flaw big or small in the finish is catastrophic for the final result; therefore, the failure rate on inspection is extremely high. On passing quality control, a hole is punched into the center to complete the new master disc.
At the studio, the new shiny master discs are cut using a recording machine called a lathe. First a microscope and cutter are moved to the disc’s outer edge ready to perform a test cut. The microscope is used to assess the test groove for any issues. Once happy, the engineer will begin recording, allowing the lathe to cut a continuous groove representing our source material using a sapphire tipped cutter. The recording is monitored via a computer, which can adjust the spacing between grooves if required. A vacuum removes the scrap lacquer created by cutting. After the recording finishes, the mastering engineer will assess the cut for any issues
The labels are created by simply printing ink on paper they are then given a hole in the center and chopped into circles. From there they are stacked and placed into a very hot oven that takes all the moisture out the the ink. They are then removed from the oven and placed into the assembly line to be pressed onto the vinyl.
The process of creating the stamp begins by washing the master disc before spraying it with tin chloride and liquid silver. A duller metal is added to the silver side, which stiffens the disc ready for the electroplating process. Electroplating simply involves immersing the silver-plated disc into a liquid tank of dissolved nickel. When immersed, the nickel is fused to the silver surface by an electrical charge. With the nickel set into the grooves, the disc is removed from the electroplating tank and the metal layer is removed from the original lacquer disc. And there you have it; the removed metal layer is our stamper that will be used to press shiny new vinyl records. To finish the stamper, the manufacturer uses an optical centering punch to make a hole in the exact center before progressing to trimming off any excess metal.
Finally the vinyl making process begins when Polyvinyl Chloride pellets are poured into a hopper which feeds the material into an extruder that melts and condenses them into a small puck shape referred to as a biscuit. The A side and B side labels are then placed on the top and bottom of the biscuit. This is then moved to the press where 100 tons of pressure is applied at very high temperatures to re-melt and mold the biscuit into a new vinyl record. Once cool, the excess vinyl is ready for a final trim.
The grooves of the vinyl are created when the music is played through a diaphragm and turned into sound waves. These waves then travel down a hollow needle that is carving those waves into the master disk. The grooves created are all unique sound waves etched in, not one was has ever been the same. When a record is played, the needle of the turn table is following the bumps and curves of these sound waves and that is what creates the music.
Peter Goldmark, is the inventor of the vinyl record you're familiar with today. Born in 1906, Goldmark ended up working at Columbia Records as an engineer and was the key developer of the 33 1/3 rpm LP (long play) record. This vinyl record was created in 1945 and had a capacity of around 21 minutes per side and was 12 inches wide, playing at a speed of 33 1/3 RPM.
Vinyl records can be used as canvas, or as a subject for art, I have done both in the past and I love the way they turn out. The vinyl was a stroke of genius and changed the world forever. They seem so simple and yet they are so intricate. I almost seems impossible for them to exist.
Graphic Content Warning: Some explanations and articles talk about violence.
Guitars
A guitar is an instrument that creates sound with vibration, in this case with the strings. Unlike a violin, which uses a bow to vibrate the strings, a guitar is a "pluck" instrument meaning that you use a pick, or your finger tips to create the sound. Contrary to other stringed instruments, the guitar is also fretted on the neck so that many chords can be played without assistance of a bow.
The guitar is the most popular instrument in the world.
The bass guitar 4 strings instead of the usual six, and the metal strings are mush thicker than any other guitar in order to get a lower sound. A bass is never strummed, it is always plucked to create a stiff bass note. It is most often used as a percussion instrument with the drums.

Guitars usually have six strings, unless it is a bass guitar which has four. It is typically played with both hands by strumming or plucking the strings with either a guitar pick or the fingers/fingernails of one hand, while simultaneously fretting (pressing the strings against the frets) with the fingers of the other hand. The sound of the vibrating strings is projected either acoustically, by means of the hollow chamber of the guitar (for an acoustic guitar), or through an electrical amplifier and a speaker.
The guitar is a type of chordophone - wherein the sound is produced by way of a string, stretched between two fixed points, vibrating when plucked - traditionally constructed from wood and strung with either gut, nylon or steel strings and distinguished from other chordophones by its construction and tuning. The modern guitar was preceded by the gittern, the vihuela, the four-course Renaissance guitar, and the five-course baroque guitar, all of which contributed to the development of the modern six-string instrument.
There are three main types of modern acoustic guitar: the classical guitar (Spanish guitar/nylon-string guitar), the steel-string acoustic guitar and the archtop guitar, which is sometimes called a "jazz guitar". The tone of an acoustic guitar is produced by the strings' vibration, amplified by the hollow body of the guitar, which acts as a resonating chamber. The classical guitar is often played as a solo instrument using a comprehensive finger-picking technique where each string is plucked individually by the player's fingers, as opposed to being strummed. The term "finger-picking" can also refer to a specific tradition of folk, blues, bluegrass, and country guitar playing in the United States. The acoustic bass guitar is pitched one octave below a regular guitar.
Electric guitars, introduced in the 1930s, use an amplifier and a loudspeaker that both makes the sound of the instrument loud enough for the performers and audience to hear, and, given that it produces an electric signal when played, that can electronically manipulate and shape the tone using an equalizer (e.g., bass and treble tone controls) and a wide variety of electronic effects units, the most commonly used ones being distortion (or "overdrive") and reverb. Early amplified guitars employed a hollow body, but solid wood guitars began to dominate during the 1960s and 1970s, as they are less prone to unwanted acoustic feedback "howls". As with acoustic guitars, there are a number of types of electric guitars, including hollowbody guitars, archtop guitars (used in jazz guitar, blues and rockabilly) and solid-body guitars, which are widely used in rock music.
The development of the electric guitar gave way to a new way of music and especially in rock, punk and heavy metal. The electric guitar allowed for the creation of the guitar solo.
Before the creation of the electric guitar, the guitar was described as "a long, fretted neck, flat wooden soundboard, ribs, and a flat back, most often with incurved sides." These however where not called guitars when this definition first came to be, in the 12th century (when guitars were first thought to be invented) guitars were called chordophones. A 3,300-year-old stone carving of a Hittite bard playing a stringed instrument is the oldest iconographic representation of a chordophone and clay plaques from Babylonia show people playing an instrument that has a strong resemblance to the guitar, indicating a possible Babylonian origin for the guitar.
The word guitar roughly translates from many languages (German Gitarre, and the French guitare were all adopted from the Spanish guitarra, which comes from the Andalusian Arabic قيثارة (qīthārah) and the Latin cithara, which in turn came from the Ancient Greek κιθάρα) as "harp" in english.
Brian May does not use a pick or his fingers to play The Red Special, he uses a coin, specifically an English 6 pence coin.
Guitars are beautiful, I have used them in art before. They create emotion and they are so precise that they really make a statement, I would love to put another in more of my art. Guitar players, especially the legends are very disciplined artists who have taken their whole lives to try to perfect their craft and I believe they deserve to be depicted.
Guitars in themselves are tools to create art, almost like a paintbrush for a musician.
“…You’ve proven something to the world…the important thing that you’ve proven to the world is that a half a million kids, and I call you kids because I have children who are older than you are, a half a million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing but fun and music and God bless you for it!”
Dear class,

I took this chance to research and learn more about a lot of my favorite things, the things that inspire me and my art. I chose "the stairs in the woods phenomenon", "The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel hauntings", "Queen", "Woodstock", "vinyl records", and "guitars". I am a big fan of the paranormal, both the stories and the "aesthetic" of it. I chose my favorite paranormal story and a local haunting to research. Queen is my biggest inspiration in life, their view on life and art is beautiful. They are my favorite band and have really shaped me into who I am today. Woodstock is something I find very interesting, almost like a huge, culture-wide protest against violence. A festival of peace, love and music and a huge innovator for the hippie movement. I have always wondered how vinyl records worked and how they were made, so I took this opportunity to find out how my favorite source of music was made and how it actually works. Guitars are a favorite of mine to listen to, play and draw. There are so many iconic guitars and players, I thought it would be interesting to research them further. These things kind of help make up my personality which is why I chose them, I loved researching them and I think I would enjoy making art with them in mind.

Sincerely,
Isabelle :)
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