GHOST HUNTERS

I love to do this: Look up cool movie locations. Just go to IMDB and look up a movie and scroll down and they give you details including filming location(s). Ever wonder where some of your favorite horror movies were filmed? Some of these locations may surprise you. I’d like to hear which ones shocked you. “Twilight” Most locations were in Oregon. I recognized a lot of them and they included Oregon City which I consider to be the scariest town I’ve ever been in and I’ve been in some crazy backwater mountainous towns in Appalachia. If you watch the movie, you can understand why I think Oregon is Nirvana. “Rose Red” The exterior shots were from Thornewood Castle in Lakewood, Washington. The interior shots were a giant set built indoors at a hanger at an abandoned Seattle Naval Base. “Signs” Bensalem Township, PA. No surprise here. M. Knight loves his home state. “30 Days of Night” New Zealand. They had to do a little to pump up the snow, as New Zealand wasn’t producing a lot, but fi...

Yeah, Julie and I had another adventure today. Expect to see more soon! I know, I know-we run into BF everywhere! Hee hee

( Using a photographer's fanny pack for my ghost equipment, above. You can also consider a fisherman's vest. Heels are optional, but always look good. ) This is the beginning of my Adventure Sunday series. I will be giving you lots of exciting ideas for little do-able adventures to spice up your life. Today, I'm focusing on the fashion of adventures for men and women. In my own style department, I am a strange eclectic mix of "The Mummy," Victorian era, safari and beach gal. Makes no sense, but I make it work. I don't like designer shit and I don't like what everyone else is wearing or how they're wearing it. I find obscure items and I'm a thrifty lady, so I find things that are well made, versatile and can be mixed and matched easily. I'm also practical about what I use because the weather here in the desert is hell on earth--literally. So, I'm going to share unusual finds with you and how I use them. MEN-DO NOT LEAVE! I plan on telling yo...

This is out on Netflix (above). Bless my Norwegian brothers who made this film! I'm so excited. I've waited my whole life for a movie about Trolls. My father told me as a child that trolls were used to frighten children into behaving. This movie looks like it might just frighten adults into--running! Looks like fun and I have yet to see a Scandinavian film I don't totally get! Here's the premise according to IMDB: A group of students investigates a series of mysterious bear killings, but learns that there are much more dangerous things going on. They start to follow a mysterious hunter, learning that he is actually a troll hunter. ( above: Troll dolls. My favorite troll ever--a statue made by artist Kim Graham. A video of creepy disturbing trolls ) According to Wikipedia, a troll is a “member of a fearsome race of creatures from Norse mythology…human-like folk of the wilderness, living underground in hills, caves or mounds…A cunning and deceitful people, living in the w...

It's a stellar lineup. Hard to believe this many emotionally and mentally crippled people walk the earth, but they do and we keep adding more and more as the decades pass. Seems like nowadays the old-fashioned serial killers who stalked and killed individually and then left BTK or Zodiac-type notes for the police and press are going by way of the lunatics with high-powered rifles hitting a mall at Christmastime. Ironically, it was the former that inspired these bizarre and unnerving movies (below) and the latter whose names you forget a week later, never to be thought of again. It's poetic justice since they probably thought it would immortalize them. It's truly disturbing and yet, in a way, seeing these movies sort of helps one to realize that we should be prepared and live defensively. After all, the killer could be in the apartment next door, beside you on the bus, or stalking you on a quiet country drive. If you enjoy movies based on real life incidents, here's some...

Sunday I'm starting a new series of dressing for adventure. It sounds kind of crazy, but it's going to be fun for men and women--both sexes included. I'm hoping to expand on this with local adventure ideas for people in different parts of the country so you can have a weekend adventure like Destination Truth's Josh Gates, but without having to eat rotten thousand year old eggs, traveling 15 hours on a plane, and riding around in a jalopy that breaks down (that is, unless your car is on its last leg). It's that time again, Friday night. If you're bored, lonely or just want some interesting and unusual conversation, join us here and comment back and forth. I'm your hostess all evening. You may begin...

("Ghost Town" I love finding new young talent-- Alana Holcombe from YouTube-listen to the entire song--it will haunt you) Well, don't know what's up with the promoter, but he said goodbye a while back until the fall season for GA, but hey, a new Valentine's episode, then a new Salem one and now one tonight at an active place I've been in Jerome, AZ! I won't complain. Keep `em coming boyz! Now, I've stayed at the Jerome Grand, way up in a little old mining town in the AZ desert. This hotel was once used as a hospital for the miners there when the town was actively mining. At the time, I was with family and not doing a hunt, but woke up all night long to someone coughing just inside the door of my room. Very clearly. I got up many times and looked out into the empty hallway. One time, as I turned away from closing the door and going back to bed, the coughing occurred directly behind me. I was a bit annoyed and said, "Please cough somewhere else....

You were three years old and it was bedtime. It was not just a huge disruption for you, but even more so for your parents. The ritual might have gone like this: Warm milk hot bath tooth brushing pony ride to the bedroom story time special stuffed animals light on in the closet tucking in the edges of the sheets and blankets kiss to the forehead door left open. You're an adult now, right? Bedtime fears are for babies! It's time for a little confessional. Which have you done as an adult? try not to let your hand or leg hang off the side of the bed see a shape in the dark and turn away, afraid to keep looking remove clothing you have hanging over something because it looks like a person leave the TV on timer while falling asleep wake from a nightmare and get up and leave the room so you don't fall asleep again and finish it sleep hugging a pillow can't fall asleep because you're finally alone with your thoughts with no distractions for the first time in the entire da...

I love blogging! Not only did I find my tribe I could not find here in conservative Phoenix, but I also got the courage to get published and leave a miserable marriage. Seriously, it has changed my life. I live on the opposite side of the country from what little family I have left. My ex's family pretty much just dropped off the earth when I divorced him. So, my family is what I make it and the blog world has become a family of choice. One thing I love about y'all is how kind people are. When I wanted to know about adsense and how it works, I asked Courtney from Haunt Jaunts . When I sent Max Evel a picture of my face,he turned it into an amazing profile pic. When I was struggling with a new look for my blog, Cullan from Strange State made me this wicked banner at the top of the page. Jeremy from olivezombies made stylish zombie art of me. Recently, I noticed a blogger had tabs and begged him to tell me and Sam Hain at The Halloween Blues told me how. Along the way, people...

Tonight, new season of "Ghost Hunters" (yawn) Did I mention "Ghost Hunters" is starting ANOTHER season tonight? At this point, I think some viewers wouldn't mind watching them pick lint from their bellybuttons. Personally, they showed no growth or change in all those, what is it--7 seasons??? I say "off with their heads!" It's not entertaining and it's not even informative anymore. It's like taking Algebra for the fifth time, all I hear from the teacher when he speaks is "wah wah wah wah wah." All I hear when Steve explains the haunting to Tango is "wah wah wah wah wah." And, at the end of the episode during reveal, Jason will say for the umpteenth time " and things of that nature ." ( Josh's head on Indiana's body ) On the bright side, my favorite guilty pleasure, "Destination Truth" has a live episode kicking off its new season on the 17th of March looking for Banshees in Ireland--wahoo! God...

It's Wednesday and the new thing is us writing a horror short. I will begin with an opening, each of you come on and consecutively add to the last guy's piece. Keep it short. I want you to try to do it in a sentence or two. First, here's last Wednesday's. If you liked someone's addition, click on their name and go to their blogs. These are some of my favorite bloggers! I'd like to see more of you jump on this time and show your hidden talents for horror. ME: "Locked inside the blackened room, he felt the walls, pounding, waiting to feel a door, but there was none." Eric “Bubba: Alder: He tried to remain calm, struggling to remember how he'd got there in the first place. He walked slowly about the room until he bumped into something very near where he figured the middle of the room would be. He reached out to feel what it was... HalloweeNut: His hand grasped a dry, hard lump about the size of a baby's head. it was... Gnostalgia: "Damn! ...

My son started a blog and I'm thrilled that he did. He's an accomplished artist and writer. He not only photographs abandoned sites, but he makes videos from them that are mesmerizing. The Desert Fallout Journal is a fantastic concept. He covers photographers of abandoned sites, zombie and dark-themed video games, video art of abandoned sites, the process of writing his end-of-world novel "Latitudes of Flint and Dust," and many more other things including Cold War era influences, atomic influences, the crumbling infrastructure of the baby boomers that his generation has grown up in, the boomtowns gone bust. His art can be found showcased at his website and his hilarious YouTube videos and other videos can be found on YouTube under " beatemorburnem " ( line from "Night of the Living Dead" ). My son is a complex man who recently graduated from college with honors with a Fine Arts degree with an emphasis on video. I have watched him run his own t-sh...

This video--watch the whole freaking thing because it will blow your mind. I admit to a monster crush on Tesla, but it could be replaced by a man named Hutchison and something he created called the "Hutchison Effect."

Ordinary people want pictures of themselves in front of Disneyland and on the beach. Oh, not me, unless of course a UFO crashed into Disneyland and the beach had a Montauk Monster wash up on its shore. I thought I would entertain you and myself with a top 10 paranormal bucket list I had assembled. One thing I know about life is that I would go into these situations with certain expectations and goals and come back with completely different ones. I will include you in on what I naively hope to achieve in each of these adventures. I am very curious to hear what you might put on our own bucket lists. Please share. I will put these in order of what I would most like to do and descending order of importance. 1. Ghost hunt in my childhood home to communicate with the Civil War soldiers, my father, mother, brother, sister and family friend who all vowed to haunt it. My expectations going into this are that my family, knowing I seek answers from the other side and swearing they would haunt it...

First, I wanted to start with this wicked cool book trailer that my son, Alex , created (he did the book cover too) for my upcoming book "Was That a Ghost?" that helps folks to know if what happened to them was paranormal or not. The book will be coming out on Nook/Kindle in a couple weeks. I will keep you updated. Love this trailer! Very cool! Let's look at the types of ghost hunters: Preoccupied by/fear death: ( example Steve Gonsalves TAPS “Ghost Hunters” ) These hunters often present as young hunters, goth types, those with grief/depression issues chronically, those who’ve come close to death through illness or accident, and those who carry a preoccupation of thoughts about death and dying. Their motivations are vast, but they all fall within the realm of fear of death and a need to prove to themselves there is an afterlife. The strengths of these hunters are an openness to the possibilities, they don’t generally fear the concept of ghosts, in fact, they are excite...

(Patterson film, 1967, Northern California) I came across the Patterson film again recently. It's got to be one of my biggest tormenters. Why? Because my entire life, I always poo-poo'd the concept that this was genuine film. No one ever gets such extraordinary things on film and if they did, people would rush into the woods like madmen wanting to capture the beast. It wasn't until the past 10 years or so that I've looked at the film differently. BF, after all, is not like an elusive ghost. It is a real biological creature that could be captured on film ( although there are those who believe he is popping in and out of other dimensions ). I think what bothers me the most about the film is that going about debunking it is much like debunking ghostly evidence. To the outsider, it can be disputed too easily, but to the person who was there in the context, it is forever burned into their memory; they know the context, they know that they saw, smell and heard and they also...

Coming Up With New Post Ideas I've been doing my blog for 3 years now and I do 2 posts most days. How??? I know, I know, I don't have a life. It isn't actually all that time-consuming. I usually put a week or two ahead in the queue so I can kick back. So, one day a week I brainstorm and my brain is fairly active. Here are some things I've done over the years that made my posting easier: 1. Consider having “series.” Look at my tabs across the top of my blog--those are just some series. Say, every Wednesday you do “Who Dunnit Wednesday?” and discuss a famous crime that was never solved. Maybe on Sunday you put up, “Why My Family is Dysfunctional Sunday” based on what you observe about our family by Sunday after being with them all weekend. Series are something readers enjoy because they think, “oh yeah, it's ridiculous music video Monday!” 2. Use your Followers. That sounded harsh, huh? No, use them in a good way. Pick out a follower who intrigues you or has a reall...

You know, I'm a lovable person. I think everyone is a little prize to be opened and cherished, to draw light to their strengths and find their weaknesses endearing. Some people, however, earn a special place in my heart because they have some amazing qualities that show their spot on the evolutionary scale shows promise for the future. Some of those qualities? Curiosity and intelligence Humor and ability to laugh at oneself, as well Saying you'll do something and doing it Whatever you find yourself doing, doing it 110% Ben Hansen of "Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files" on SyFy channel is one such evolutionary divergence that proves we are headed in the right direction. Production companies, editing and cable channel's directives aside, this guy is just there and real and smart and hopeful and earnest and seriously knows his paranormal world. He was not an actor hoping to get a show. He was an investigator hoping to get a sponsor to investigate the big stuff. Sure, I...

Hey, I'm in all evening, hanging out. Come and go as you wish. Make chit chat. Stay awhile. I want to hear from you if you're lonely tonight too. Oh, and do have your Travel Channel on to see the GA Salem episode--see my earlier post today for the drinking game instructions. This episode should be worth a buzz or two. You may begin commenting now.

(Witchy Woman done a cappella by Calmwaters23 on YouTube. This dude has serious talent. I figured since the Travel Channel promoters left me in the dark about this episode, I'd leave the Eagles in the dark too! You won't miss a thing, this version rocks!) I don't know whazzup with the promoters, but they said goodbye for the season and see y'all next fall with the new season and then they burped up the Valentine's episode without warning and now a Salem episode that is new. The season isn't on, but apparently they had some straggler episodes?? I'm not going to complain! God, I miss new episodes of GA! The boyz are hitting Salem. You knew this would have to happen and with Zak being a superstitious type, he's going to be all heebie jeebies, might be calling on an incubus or being burned at the stake (even though they were hung actually). Drinking game tonight will have a new twist. I'm going to give you the rules and send you to my buddy The Liquor G...