Crazy Ghost Huntin' Fools

Currently in Earphones: "Cleopatra" Soundtrack by Trevor Jones.

Now you all know that I'm a skeptic and follower of folk like James Randi and Robert Todd Carroll. So don't all collapse in disbelief when I say that I've recently gotten hooked on the show "Ghost Hunters."

I remember my fascination with "the paranormal" went all the way back to my young years, when I would check books out on cryptozoological creatures and scare myself silly. I also remember a brief interest in the schlock-tastic show "Sightings" hosted by Sci-Fi back in the day. It was strange, because I didn't particularly like that trapped animal fear that one could get so easily worked up to, hearing stories of things that skulked through the night. But I kept coming back, probably because of the strangeness of it all.

Indeed, I remember that it only took one similar "Ghost hunting"-type show (probably also on Sci-Fi) a number of years back to freak me out and swear off it for near good, and this was broadcast in the middle of a bright, sunny day.

So honestly I was as surprised as you are when a few days ago I started watching selected episodes of "Ghost Hunters" on YouTube, and found that I actually was enjoying it. Let me preface this by saying that what they do find is still questionable, but what really turned me on to it was...

A. 99% of what they find is "There's nothing here" and
B. Specific things usually are debunked fairly quickly.

Apart from their genuinely creepy Ireland episodes, these two aspects hold true for pretty much every season they've done so far. Even if they believe in the paranormal, I find the two founders of the show, Jason and Grant, the best men I could imagine doing this sort of thing. For one, they're both plumbers for a living, which goes far in helping debunk any weird noises and (I would imagine) gives them a very down-to-earth personalities. I really liked the Queen Mary episode, and I paraphrase...

(Jason and Grant are being shown the engine room)
Guide: "We know that NONE of these machines are functioning, and THAT one STILL makes noise. This PROVES that there's a ghost here who EVEN NOW is making his presence known!"
Grant: "Ma'm, do you even know what that machine is?"
Guide: "Well, no..."
Jason (to Grant): "Shenanigans!"

(Later, Jason and Grant are looking at it with a thermal camera)
Grant: "Yep, it's a hot water heater.......aaaand it's still functioning."
Jason: "Knew it."

And they do this nearly every episode, sometimes even getting debunked by their fellow investigators, who are pretty sharp themselves...

Steve: "Yeah, so that thing your thermo-cam saw on the staircase?"
Grant: "What the hell was that?"
Steve: "That would be the banister."
Grant:"Ah"
Jason: "What about that split second image of a guy, clear as day?"
Steve: "That would be you accidentally getting Grant when you swung your arm around...there ::indicated camera-man's separate footage::"
Jason: "Ah"

And if I have to pick one quote that I loved (in a similar vein as the above) from a scene of footage review....

Brian: "DEAR GOD, WHAT WAS THAT?!?"
Steve: "A bug."
Brian: "...Oh yeah!"

Once again, this is not to excuse the stuff that they find and take as "real" evidence, especially the EVP's they're so fond of using (I suspect pareidolia and some as-yet-unknown effect as the causes of these aberrations). But overall, I appreciate that time after time, they find nothing, and are perfectly fine with it.

I'll save my rant for later about how the amazingly annoying, unreliable, jumpy, and overall ratfink Brian Harnois is the worst thing about the show, as I have a Latin midterm staring me in the face.

Enough, More Later.
- James

Two-fer

Now playing: Shooglenifty - August
via FoxyTunes


Courtesy of the lady-friend's blog, an iTunes meme. Some facts about my library...

How many songs total: 4166
How many hours or days of music: 10.7 Days
Most recently played: (check out my Foxy Tunes tag at the beginning of the post)
Most played: "Main Title / Morgan's Ride" from Cutthroat Island by John Debney
Most recently added: Shooglenifty - August

Sort by song title:
First Song: A. A. Cameron's Strathspey / Mrs. Martha Knowles / The Pitnacree Ferryman / The New Shillin' -- Silly Wizard
Last Song: "7/29/04 The Day Of" from Oceans 12 by David Holmes

Sort by time:
Shortest Song: "The Shadow Knows...1994" - Alec Baldwin (:08)
Longest Song: "Alabama" from Crimson Tide by Hans Zimmer (23:50)

Sort by album:
First album: Abby Road --Immediate Music
Last album: 300 OST (ha!) - Tyler Bates

First song that comes up on Shuffle: "Cells (Instrumental)" - The Servant

Search the following and state how many songs come up:
Death: 26
Life: 23
Love: 68
Hate: 4
You: 74
Sex: 3 (The Rednex "Sex and Violins," and some suite to "The Secret Life of Elizabeth and Essex")


Also, I may make it a habit to post some poetry if I have nothing better to say. As such, here:

The Listeners
Walter De La Mare

"Is there anybody there?" asked the Traveller,
   Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence champed the grasses
   Of the forest's ferny floor;
And a bird flew up out of the turret,
   Above the Traveller's head;
And he smote upon the door again a second time
   "Is there anybody there?" he said.
But no one descended to the Traveller;
   No head from the leaf fringed sill
Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,
   Where he stood perplexed and still.
But only a host of phantom listeners
   That dwelt in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
   To that voice from the world of men:
Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,
   That goes down to the empty hall,
Hearkening in the air stirred and shaken
   By the lonely Traveller's call.

As he felt in his heart their strangeness,
   Their stillness answering his cry,
While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
   'Neath the starred and leafy sky;
For he suddenly smote the door, even
   Louder, and lifted his head:
"Tell them I came, and no one answered
   That I kept my word," he said.
Never the least stir made the listeners,
   Though every word he spake
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
   From the one man left awake:
Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
   And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly backward,
   When the plunging hooves were gone.


Enough, More Later.
- James

Finally!

Currently in Earphones: "Tricks of the Trade" from Incognito, by John Ottman

You know, I keep telling folks, it's all a myth. Over and over again: "Doesn't it cause hallucinations?" No, no and NO.

Science to the rescue, once again!

Also, I find this a far better "What's your X Name?" doohickey than others, because you can CHOOSE THEM YOURSELF.

Mine? Rafael H. Orsini


Enough, More Later.
- James