When the sun goes down it seems like everything changes. The moon comes out and the stars start gleaming and before you know it there's something in the air. People change, do stuff they'd never do in the light of day. Like the guy who sits at a desk all day talking to clients, selling them anything even if they don't need it. His day ends and it's time to relax. He goes to his favorite watering hole and has a couple of drinks. The alcohol kicks in and the next time you see him he's trying to make the moves on women he'd never approach during the day. He starts acting all tough and the change happens because you can hide in the darkness and they can't see you clearly.
That's another reason why I like the graveyard shift even though it does get a bit weird sometimes. I mean what would you expect from a night time that everyone calls "graveyard". Think about it and the first thing that comes to my mind is "eww dead people" Of course than you could take it a step further and see the fact that everyone who works this shift do come off quite often as "dead" people because of the disruption of the natural sleep pattern. Come on, sleep during the day and awake during the night? Now you know why I like the shift because I get to play music and talk to all the walking zombies out there. They mostly entertain me while I entertain them. And then there's the call from my past. I will have to introduce my former on-air partner, from years ago, next time. The red lite is ON and so am I.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Life in the overnite hours
It's seventeen minutes after the witching hour and you're listening to Midnite2Six. I'm Alex, thanks for joining me. Let me take you for a ride and I promise you won't see the inside of the trunk. You can even sit up front and talk with me. We'll be going down some dark and winding roads but that's the fun part as you can never tell what's around the next corner in the dark.
The radio station is a two story building with the station on the second floor. The windows in the studio face the street. Which makes it fun to people watch while you're on the air. At three o'clock in the morning that can be a blast. Across the street from the station is a niteclub that has a very popular dance club and awesome chinese food. The club is open until 4am but stops serving alcohol at two. The restaurant serves food until three am and delivers. I love won ton soup and they make some of the best I've ever sampled. At three o'clock in the morning there's nothing better than won ton soup.
I've said in the past the "grave yard" shift is different because of the folks who listen. You get the party crowd, who are coming down from whatever high they have been enjoying. They are just trying to make it to their next destination, be it home or someone else's home. Then there are the other over night workers, like Jerry or Cherie. This group is just looking for a way to make it through the night without too much boredom. I can normally help with that. I encourage phone calls, while laying down some hot tracks, as it also makes my night less boring. Talking to people at 3 in the morning can sometimes make me feel like a bartender, you know, someone who will listen to their troubles. I do listen and sometimes find that I can help some of them. Which is why I've started to worry a bit about Cherie (with a C) as I haven't heard from her since that last phone call. It's probably nothing as the graveyard shift is in constant flux, just look at Jerry. I'd like to hear from her though just for my peace of mind.
The radio station is a two story building with the station on the second floor. The windows in the studio face the street. Which makes it fun to people watch while you're on the air. At three o'clock in the morning that can be a blast. Across the street from the station is a niteclub that has a very popular dance club and awesome chinese food. The club is open until 4am but stops serving alcohol at two. The restaurant serves food until three am and delivers. I love won ton soup and they make some of the best I've ever sampled. At three o'clock in the morning there's nothing better than won ton soup.
I've said in the past the "grave yard" shift is different because of the folks who listen. You get the party crowd, who are coming down from whatever high they have been enjoying. They are just trying to make it to their next destination, be it home or someone else's home. Then there are the other over night workers, like Jerry or Cherie. This group is just looking for a way to make it through the night without too much boredom. I can normally help with that. I encourage phone calls, while laying down some hot tracks, as it also makes my night less boring. Talking to people at 3 in the morning can sometimes make me feel like a bartender, you know, someone who will listen to their troubles. I do listen and sometimes find that I can help some of them. Which is why I've started to worry a bit about Cherie (with a C) as I haven't heard from her since that last phone call. It's probably nothing as the graveyard shift is in constant flux, just look at Jerry. I'd like to hear from her though just for my peace of mind.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Did Someone say Ghost?
Continuing the story of how I broke my leg, I have listened to the audio tape I remembered to switch on as we approached the third floor. Here is the transcript of that incident. ....{sound of footsteps walking up stairs}..."Here we are going live for the search for the Ghost in the Building"....{we hear a voice in the background}..."Really".....{Me}..."No not really"....{voice}..."Oh"......
The second floor was dotted with doors, each one an office with a potential story. As we walked down the hall heading for the stairwell leading to the third floor the air seemed cooler than before. We checked each door as we went hoping to "flush" out the spirits that lived here. Most of the doors were locked as the businesses were closed for the evening. Of the few that were unlocked we cautiously entered and looked around. We expected something to jump out at us but no such luck. Heading up the stairs to the third floor I started to feel my heart beat a little faster as the research I had done indicated that the third floor was where we should expect some spirits. A room from the time the building was a hotel was where a murder had been committed. I felt that that was what was causing the sightings Jerry was experiencing.
We were starting to see wisps of our breath in the flash light beams and I was feeling quite a chill now. The hair on the back of my neck was starting to rise as we left the sanctuary of the stairwell. We both jumped when the door creaked as we opened it. Upon entering the hallway of the third floor we saw that there were no lights working. All the light we had were from our flashlights. I was following Jerry when I felt a slight touch on my back, when I turned around there was nothing there. Nerves. It was spooky but then again I shouldn't have been surprised. We advanced down the hallway trying doors as we went. The room where the murder had been committed was at the other end of the hallway. We were about half way there when out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw a flicker of color but when I looked, nothing. Even though I didn't see anything I still felt like I'd seen something. We were almost at the door of the room when my flashlight went out and then things got really crazy. I have to stop here for a minute and just say, what I'm about to tell you will be hard to believe. I hardly believe it and I was there. I'm not making this up. I'm not punking you and I have a broken leg to prove it. It was a scene right out of Ghostbusters, Jerry was in front of me and he screamed as an image that reminded me of a....well let's go to the audio transcript again...{Jerry's voice, nervous laughter}..."Oh....JEEZ WHAT'S THAT!"....{a scream of terror, sounds of running and then the crash, bump, smack sound of a body falling down stairs and cry's of pain}
Later Jerry visited me in the hospital and we dance around what happened. He asks me what I saw and I ask him what he saw and so on. He finally tells me that it must have just been our nerves and the flashlights going out. He got scared and ran. My thoughts go in another direction though as I'm sure I saw a glowing figure of a woman with a butcher knife in her hand. And she was heading for us. Jerry tells me he quit his job at the mini-mart and is leaving town. He is heading for the big city, Los Angeles. He's hoping to maybe try his hand at acting. I wish him well. One thing I keep to myself from that night though is I can clearly feel a hand pushing me down the stairs as we were running away. Frankly I didn't look back to see whose hand it was.
After I got out of the hospital I did some more research on the building. I discovered that the murdered woman wasn't actually murdered but was the murderer. Her lover had stepped out on her and she didn't take kindly to that. I guess the wrath of a woman scorned supercedes death.
The second floor was dotted with doors, each one an office with a potential story. As we walked down the hall heading for the stairwell leading to the third floor the air seemed cooler than before. We checked each door as we went hoping to "flush" out the spirits that lived here. Most of the doors were locked as the businesses were closed for the evening. Of the few that were unlocked we cautiously entered and looked around. We expected something to jump out at us but no such luck. Heading up the stairs to the third floor I started to feel my heart beat a little faster as the research I had done indicated that the third floor was where we should expect some spirits. A room from the time the building was a hotel was where a murder had been committed. I felt that that was what was causing the sightings Jerry was experiencing.
We were starting to see wisps of our breath in the flash light beams and I was feeling quite a chill now. The hair on the back of my neck was starting to rise as we left the sanctuary of the stairwell. We both jumped when the door creaked as we opened it. Upon entering the hallway of the third floor we saw that there were no lights working. All the light we had were from our flashlights. I was following Jerry when I felt a slight touch on my back, when I turned around there was nothing there. Nerves. It was spooky but then again I shouldn't have been surprised. We advanced down the hallway trying doors as we went. The room where the murder had been committed was at the other end of the hallway. We were about half way there when out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw a flicker of color but when I looked, nothing. Even though I didn't see anything I still felt like I'd seen something. We were almost at the door of the room when my flashlight went out and then things got really crazy. I have to stop here for a minute and just say, what I'm about to tell you will be hard to believe. I hardly believe it and I was there. I'm not making this up. I'm not punking you and I have a broken leg to prove it. It was a scene right out of Ghostbusters, Jerry was in front of me and he screamed as an image that reminded me of a....well let's go to the audio transcript again...{Jerry's voice, nervous laughter}..."Oh....JEEZ WHAT'S THAT!"....{a scream of terror, sounds of running and then the crash, bump, smack sound of a body falling down stairs and cry's of pain}
Later Jerry visited me in the hospital and we dance around what happened. He asks me what I saw and I ask him what he saw and so on. He finally tells me that it must have just been our nerves and the flashlights going out. He got scared and ran. My thoughts go in another direction though as I'm sure I saw a glowing figure of a woman with a butcher knife in her hand. And she was heading for us. Jerry tells me he quit his job at the mini-mart and is leaving town. He is heading for the big city, Los Angeles. He's hoping to maybe try his hand at acting. I wish him well. One thing I keep to myself from that night though is I can clearly feel a hand pushing me down the stairs as we were running away. Frankly I didn't look back to see whose hand it was.
After I got out of the hospital I did some more research on the building. I discovered that the murdered woman wasn't actually murdered but was the murderer. Her lover had stepped out on her and she didn't take kindly to that. I guess the wrath of a woman scorned supercedes death.
Friday, August 14, 2009
That's my story and I'm sticking to it
Ok sorry for the delay but I've got a pretty good excuse. I just spent the last three weeks in the hospital for a broken leg. Broken leg, you ask? Let me tell you the story but don't repeat it as I told work a quite different story.
So it was 6 minutes past midnite and I was meeting Jerry to search for spirits and no, I'm not talking Cap'n Morgan. As I've said the building he works in is older and so, has a history. Except for the street level facade that has been upgraded to include the store fronts as I noted before, the outside looks like any three story small town building. From my research I discovered it was built in the 90's, that's the 1890's. It was originally a hotel that was then converted into offices in the 1950's. Jerry and I had talked about the building and it's history, so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect once we got inside.
Jerry's voice is the only real way I had of identifying him, so I was taking a chance but he seemed ok despite the seeing dead people thing. So when I walked into the mini mart and looked around I wasn't sure what to expect. As it turned out I was surprised to not be surprised. Jerry was in his mid-twenties with features that can only be described as typical white male of non-descript origin with a pierced ear and eyebrow. His blonde hair hung over his ears and collar but looked clean. He was wearing one of those rock-n-roll t-shirts with a band logo I didn't recognise and blue jeans with cowboy boots.
He said, "Hey how's it goin' tonite?". With that greeting I knew it was Jerry. From my conversations with him I knew that when he got excited his voice raised an octave. Subsequently when he was confident about his subject it lowered an octave. There were times he almost sounded like Mickey Mouse with a cold and other times like James Earl Jones on helium. Most times tho he just had a pleasant everyman voice.
When I said, "Hey, back atcha", he had a surprised look on his face. It was a look I see whenever someone connects the face with the voice. It's never what they expect. That's right as I've said before the info the eye sees never matches the picture the ears have told the brain what they've "seen". That look of surprise wasn't because I have a hunchback or am lucky enough to look like George Clooney. My voice just doesn't match my appearance. I think one of the things that surprises people is my age, I'm older than they expect. I'm also older than I look so that would be the real surprise.
After introductions are made and the small talk (building courage for the real reason we're here) is out of the way, "How ya doin' tonite?, Oh fine, it sure feels weird to be up this late and not be working." We headed for the back stairwell that lead to the second floor. Which is where we expected the action to take place. It was appropriate that the stairs creaked and groaned as we ascended to the 2nd floor landing. The nite lites were burning but there were more dark shadowy patches than light. It was disconcerting to say the least. I could see the 1800's hotel influences in those lights as they looked like lamps refitted to accept electricity and light bulbs.
To be continued.....
So it was 6 minutes past midnite and I was meeting Jerry to search for spirits and no, I'm not talking Cap'n Morgan. As I've said the building he works in is older and so, has a history. Except for the street level facade that has been upgraded to include the store fronts as I noted before, the outside looks like any three story small town building. From my research I discovered it was built in the 90's, that's the 1890's. It was originally a hotel that was then converted into offices in the 1950's. Jerry and I had talked about the building and it's history, so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect once we got inside.
Jerry's voice is the only real way I had of identifying him, so I was taking a chance but he seemed ok despite the seeing dead people thing. So when I walked into the mini mart and looked around I wasn't sure what to expect. As it turned out I was surprised to not be surprised. Jerry was in his mid-twenties with features that can only be described as typical white male of non-descript origin with a pierced ear and eyebrow. His blonde hair hung over his ears and collar but looked clean. He was wearing one of those rock-n-roll t-shirts with a band logo I didn't recognise and blue jeans with cowboy boots.
He said, "Hey how's it goin' tonite?". With that greeting I knew it was Jerry. From my conversations with him I knew that when he got excited his voice raised an octave. Subsequently when he was confident about his subject it lowered an octave. There were times he almost sounded like Mickey Mouse with a cold and other times like James Earl Jones on helium. Most times tho he just had a pleasant everyman voice.
When I said, "Hey, back atcha", he had a surprised look on his face. It was a look I see whenever someone connects the face with the voice. It's never what they expect. That's right as I've said before the info the eye sees never matches the picture the ears have told the brain what they've "seen". That look of surprise wasn't because I have a hunchback or am lucky enough to look like George Clooney. My voice just doesn't match my appearance. I think one of the things that surprises people is my age, I'm older than they expect. I'm also older than I look so that would be the real surprise.
After introductions are made and the small talk (building courage for the real reason we're here) is out of the way, "How ya doin' tonite?, Oh fine, it sure feels weird to be up this late and not be working." We headed for the back stairwell that lead to the second floor. Which is where we expected the action to take place. It was appropriate that the stairs creaked and groaned as we ascended to the 2nd floor landing. The nite lites were burning but there were more dark shadowy patches than light. It was disconcerting to say the least. I could see the 1800's hotel influences in those lights as they looked like lamps refitted to accept electricity and light bulbs.
To be continued.....
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Scared
I'll be honest with you, I'm scared. Yep the thought of going ghost hunting scares me. Imagine that, huh. I have been dragging my feet in meeting up with Jerry and he's been calling asking me when we're going to do this thing. I keep making excuses but my "grandmother" can only "die" once so it's becoming more difficult to put it off. So I think I will NOT do the bandaid thing and get it over quickly. So here's a start. The building the mini-mart is housed in, is an older three story building. I will do some more research to find out it's history. I know it started out as a hotel back in the 1890's. Then it was turned into an office space type set-up with a major renovation that gave it character. Now it's got the mini-mart and a martial arts studio that occupy the main ground floor with a very small storefront in between the two that is currently unoccupied. It used to be a local video rental store, it went out of business when a video chain store came to town. The second floor has mostly office spaces and it always makes me think of Sam Spade or Mickey Spillane, you know Private Investigators. At the moment most of the offices are empty. The slow economy does that sometimes, also there doesn't seem to be much need for a lot of PI's in this town. Oops the red lite just came on so it's off to Radio land for me.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Who ya gonna Call?
Sorry I haven't been posting lately but..... I had to go out of town rather suddenly to help an old friend from my past. They got themselves in some trouble and needed someone to watch their back. Work got put on the back burner as I had to tell the prog director that I had to go. When she tried to get me to stay it became either I go and come back or I go and don't come back. It was as simple (at least to me) as that. In case you're wondering this friend deserved that kind of loyalty and back up.
Now that I'm back I will try to get together with Jerry so we can investigate these paranormal sightings. I expect to report within the next few days or so. I really hope the happenings aren't fake. Alright the On-Air lite is starting to glow so......
Now that I'm back I will try to get together with Jerry so we can investigate these paranormal sightings. I expect to report within the next few days or so. I really hope the happenings aren't fake. Alright the On-Air lite is starting to glow so......
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Don't fall asleep
Haven't been getting much sleep the last few days. I'm researching ghost sightings in the area. Between the internet and the local library, I've found that this town has it's share of sighting. The building that the mini market is in does have a history that lends itself to the possibility of hauntings. Jerry and I have agreed to meet on Sunday nite. His shift starts at 11:30pm so I will show up around midnite. HAHA Who ya gonna call? I plan on spending as much time there as is necessary. I have a digital recorder and I've changed my mind about the disposable camera and picked up a video camera. Why not? if we actually get a visitation then I want video!Haven't heard from Cherie since that last call. As I have mentioned I hope she didn't get in trouble. The voice that was questioning her sounded pissed. Hmmm wonder if it was her boss or a boyfriend? As you might guess I'm rooting for boss.Ok, I've done as much as possible towards a successful recording of a ghostly presence at the mini mart. I'm taking the rest of the day to sleep and get ready for tonite's show. It's getting close to time and then I'm ON the Radio.
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