Picture thread - post the most unusual place you've ever seen

This is in the Italian Dolomites - literally built into the side of a valley

photograph.

Here's me and my tank crew at King Khalid Military City about an hour's flight (in a C-130) north of Riyadh. I'm on the right:

*drool*

almost like an italian mesa verde

...one of 'em would be this place:


The first band I was ever in was called Scott Thomas Lowe & Atascadero. In 1979, we played live in a large (maybe 500 capacity) auditorium for the inmates of the Atascadero State (CA) Hospital for the criminally insane (I think the inmates were only men, that's all I saw). The band was named after the hospital because Scott, the main songwriter and lead singer, believed that "the world is run by criminally insane people." We were warned not to leave any broken guitar strings laying around, as they could be used for strangling purposes. I took this picture of the rest of the band crawling on the sign at the entrance to the prison. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us take pictures inside.

The band featured two "buxom" (do people still say that?) female singers, and between their "stage moves" and a song called "Sickness and Death," which featured a rant performed by me in which I screamed about lobotomies and thorazine, "the crowd went nuts," so to speak.

The original drummer of the band was Dewey Martin, who would later be inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame for his work with Buffalo Springfield. I bought his Springfield-era Camco drums and followed him as the band's drummer. (I still have/use the same Camcos, they're great!) One of the bass players in the band was Jim Fielder, who also performed and recorded with Buffalo Springfield, as well as Zappa's Mothers of Invention, but who is perhaps best known as a founding member of Blood Sweat & Tears. Oddly enough, he has been Neil Sedaka's music director since around the time he was in Atascadero.

Unfortunately, the band broke up a couple of years after I left it, mostly due to the usual decadent Hollywood lifestyles that the remaining band members overindulged in.

Madame Sherri's Castle in Chesterfield, NH. The ruins of a very cool house built by a very interesting lady in the 20's (I believe). Madame Sherri was said to have swept into town with a limousine and driver and then built this place that is out in the middle of nowhere. It was rumored to be a "house of ill repute" and she was also said to have ties to rum-runners and other notorious criminal types. What the truth is, no one really knows but the ruins are neat and you get some cool vibes from the place. There is a large man-made lake or reservoir that is faced in beautiful stonework, and a stone bridge then when you climb the hill you come upon the ruins of the house.

but don't have any of those pics on flickr. :-(

Below are pics from Kalaupapa (on the island of Molokai). One of the most unusual, yet beautiful places I've ever been to. The peninsula is surrounded by some of the tallest sea cliffs in the world. There are three ways in: by mule, hiking (min 2 hour hike), or plane. I decided we'd fly in.

Here is a link if you want to read more: http://www.vrmag.org/issue29/AMONG_THE_HIGHEST_SEA_CLIFFS_IN_THE_WORLD.html

Here are some pics:

The airport is very small


Between the lava rocks and the ocean there are a hundred, or more,
unmarked graves (a tsunami washed away the wooden crosses)


Father Damien's grave, next to the church (his remains were exhumed
in 1936 and reburied at Louvain, Belgium). In 1995 a relic composed
of the remains of his right hand was returned to his original grave
at Kalawao, to the great joy of Kalaupapa and the rest of Hawai`i.


Our tour guide (visitors to Kalaupapa must remain with a tour group):


Aerial view: