Tim Gilmore of JaxPsychoGeo on Murray Hill Theater

[mezofoprezo]

PSA: If you have not had the chance to read any of Tim Gilmore's prolific, mindful, and invaluable documentation of Jacksonville's clambering cultural echoes, you need to GET ON THAT SHIT. You're welcome, fellow passionate people.

http://jaxpsychogeo.com/west/murray-hill-theater/

There's a certain feeling in a big house when the party's over and the rooms are empty. I don't mean loneliness. It's a kind of peace in which the ghosts of everyone who's gone home keep walking about in their own absence and laughing and sipping drinks.

There's a similar feeling in a church after the congregation's gone and the worshipping is over. When the singing and preaching is done and the building is empty, you're alone with the place. You can feel all the ceremony imprinted on the walls.

But my favorite eerie feeling of this triad is the ghostliness of a theater after a show. I love to imagine that every act of art and entertainment the theater has hosted has left some historical and cultural residue on the walls, the stage and the floor that slopes down toward it, the high ceilings. If you approach it just right, it will speak to you, almost imperceptibly, a faded watermark on old paper.

[IrvAdams]

That was excellent! Thank you for offering this take on the past, present and future of the Murray Hill.

[mezofoprezo]

You're welcome Murray Hill is empty now but it's the emptiness of a canvas, not a ghost town.

[jaxlore]

nice post. thanks for the headsup