The first-ever, Creepy Cleveland T-Shirt!

Yesterday morning I had my very first experience with what’s involved in being on tv.  About a week ago I was contacted by the producer of a local television show who wanted to know if I’d appear on camera for a few minutes answering some questions about some local ghost stories.  Because I run Creepy Cleveland.  You knew that, right?

Anyway, Carrie and I show up at Franklin Castle in Cleveland at the agreed upon time (well, early actually) and wait for someone who looks like a reporter or a cameraman or something.  Soon after we see a lady being followed by a gentleman with a big camera.  “That’s gotta be them”, I tell Carrie.  We get out of the car and introduce ourselves.

In place for the interview.

As it turns out Rachel was very nice and made my (potential) fifteen minutes of fame much easier.  I was wired up with a microphone (under my shirt and tucked into my jacket pocket – no wires showing!) and asked to stand in front of the Castle while some camera adjustments were done.  During this time, Rachel tells me that we’re going to do this like two friends just gabbing about ghost stories.  I was to look at her (not the camera) and I was to be aware that no one on tv will hear her voice asking me questions.  Because of this, if she asked “Tell me about Franklin Castle…”  I was to respond “Franklin Castle is…”  y’know – so as not to appear as if I was talking to someone.

Ok… everything was set.  Here we go.  The first thing she asked was…   um…  I don’t remember!

Seriously!  I was so wired and nervous and we had been talking about all the things I’d be talking about on the air that only 24 hours later I already can’t remember what I said.  Thank god Carrie was there with us.  Afterwards she said I did well.  (I believe she used the word “great”, but she may be biased)

There were to be two three-minute segments – one dealing with Franklin Castle and one dealing with the Melon Heads.  Rachel led me through the whole experience with good prompts and I remember only stumbling on my words once or twice (hopefully that can be edited out later).

Before I knew it, we were done.  The cameraman wandered around shooting “B-Roll” footage (which seemed to be stock footage, long shots of Rachel and I talking and random shots of the Castle) and then I was un-wired.

Minutes later I thanked Rachel and she thanked me and she told us that our segment will be aired on Halloween morning.  The whole show can be streamed online and by that afternoon individual segments will be available online as well.

We said our goodbyes and got in the car.  What a great morning!

While I’m still a little nervous about looking goofy on tv, the most nerve-wracking part is over.

Halloween morning should be very interesting.

Tags: CreepyCleveland

You must get this book!

You may remember me mentioning being interviewed late last year for an article in West Life. Well, the author, Charles Cassady, had mentioned at the time that he was in the process of collecting stories for a book he was writing.

I expressed how cool I thought that was and asked him to let me know when the book would be in stores. Well, back in June, he sent me an email letting me know that “Cleveland Ghosts” would be in stores by Halloween 2008. Sweet.

Well tonight we went to see a movie (Saw V) and stopped in at the Border’s at Crocker Park beforehand.

Right when you walk in they have a Halloween/haunted-themed table. Cleveland Ghosts was in! I grabbed it and started thumbing through it. I’m in the acknowledgements! Creepy Cleveland is actually mentioned in the book three times (at last count…I think there’s only three) The book is full of all the ghost stories I’ve come to know and love. Franklin Castle, Squire’s Castle and Melonheads (oh my!) Plus a bunch of lesser known stories. Just the kind of stuff I like to post on Creepy Cleveland.

OK, I may be biased, but I can’t put it down. It’s like he took all the stories I’ve heard over the past twenty years and put ‘em all in one book.  In actuality, along with his standard research he also contacted local websites (like Creepy Cleveland and Dead Ohio) and interviewed anyone who’s anyone in the field of local ghost-stories.

So now you have to go out and buy the book.

There might be quiz later.

Go on.

Tags: CreepyCleveland

Today I was thumbing through a recent copy of the Free Times and ran across this article. In the last paragraph Creepy Cleveland got mentioned!! Awww hell. I was sad. I gave Creepy Cleveland away over a year ago and so far had only made one half-assed effort at getting it back. (The guy who’s running it now said I could have it back, I just never followed up with him)

Well, today was the last straw. I emailed Billy some files to post on creepycleveland.net that will point back to the new Creepy Cleveland. I’ve spent all night so far trying to catch up on emails that are over a year old and posting new stories and fixing dead links and trying really hard to have the new Creepy Cleveland presentable by tomorrow. (to have Creepy Cleveland reborn on Halloween? Oh, hell yeah.)

I’m going with a blog format because it’s easier to maintain and allows people to comment on the contributed stories without me needing to be involved (other than monitoring comments for spam). I’m still keeping the old site around because it’s got so much content and having to retype (or even copy and paste) all that stuff would be a nightmare.

Tags: CreepyCleveland

Yes, it’s true.

An old site visitor Billy Meade has offered to host the site and help out with the day to day operations.  Right now about half the site has been redesigned and the other half is  basically restored from backup.  There are even pages that don’t exist at all (I don’t know how I let that happen)  I’m sure it will take some time, but nevertheless, I am happy to announce that Creepy Cleveland is back from the Dead!!

http://www.creepycleveland.net

Tags: CreepyCleveland