saturday, my friend carissa and i visited the armagosa opera house which is between death valley, ca and las vegas, nv. we found this pearl on our way to death valley two weeks before and both decided we needed to check out the opera house in the ghost town.

it was, as i expected, romantically creepy. it was everything i thought it would be. it was completely ominous and beautiful. the fact that this place is not only there but still operating is surreal, and surreal is the best word i can find for it. it's a juxtaposition. it's a contradiction. it's gorgeous. it's unreal that it exists as it does.

the "town", armagosa junction, was originally owned by the borax company which operated from nearby. when they stopped mining for borax, the town was abandoned. there is a hotel and gift shop operating in conjunction with the opera house. one of my favorite finds, along with a small cat i found painted in one of the mural's corners, was a tiny skull in the gift shop. it was not for sale. it was merely there for decoration.

this place exemplified noir which is why i processed a few of the photos as i did, dark and grainy like an old nosferatu movie, and while there, at any moment, i felt someone could enter the building a murder us all, not in a scary way, but in a romantic way, as if the opera house required the sacrifice to stay alive.

all the walls and ceilings are painted with wonderful murals depicting an old english theater's seating. along the top rows were the dignitaries. the middle would be the wealthy business owners and the bottom row of paintings are performers. we, in the seats on the floor, are in the cheap seats. my favorite is the mural of a man handing a rose down to his love. the entire thing is as whimsical as it is serious as it is horrifying.

here's the the armagosa opera house! not many things can surprise, but it did! CHEERS!