Horror Report

Tag: personal

  • Positive words. Positives vibes. Let’s try together!

    Positive words. Positives vibes. Let’s try together!

    The world has been wildly negative lately. People are hating on each other.. words are caustic and arguments are vitriolic. Families are divided and friendships are ending..

    OR      S O    W E    A R E      T O L D !!

    If you pay attention to modern media, you are blasted by by the negative sensation that has become pop culture.. It is deriding and divisive.. it is hateful and intrusive.. It attacks the very pit of your soul and insults the top of your brain. It connects you to nothing but further hate. Further animosity.. further connection to darkness…

    And then come the hate-filled words. You don’t even know you’re saying.

    Each time you say the following you connect yourself with negative repercussions:

    I hate life.

    People suck.

    The world sucks.

    Nothing good happens.

    You can’t trust anyone.

    People’s intentions are awful.

    I’m broke.

    I am in debt.

    I can’t get ahead.

    No one likes me.

    I have no friends.

    I have no future.

    I may as well die.

    THE UNIVERSE IS LISTENING!

    All of the time..

    When you send out an intention, such as “I have no friends,” the universe responds accordingly. It is thus. You said it..

    “No one likes me.” The universe says OKAY..

    I am broke. You are.

    I have no future. The universe will agree.. if you’re intention will be to have no future, the universe will not get in your way.

    x x x

    The real trick is not to just fake it til you make it, but believe the fakery.

    “I Have a future.” The universe will agree..

    (Only if you believe it)

    I have friends. The universe will permit such, if you think it is true.

    The intentions you have dwelled on for so long, those negative ones, are so deep in your psyche that you will have a rough time escaping the emotion.. escaping the words..

    But to change, you have to..

    I don’t win many things in life. I play the lottery but with the millions of others, it would be logical fallacy to believe I can muster enough luck to get the $700 mill jackpot.

    But there was ONE time I recall, about 15 years in the past, when I entered into a raffle.. the grand prize was only about $100. When I entered my name in the raffle, I IMMEDIATELY knew I would win. It just came over me.. it was one of the few times I was connected to the natural order. To the flow of the universe.. I just KNEW I would win. And when the raffle winners were announced later in the day, I have nervous pins and needles in my stomach because I knew my name would be called. It was.

    My wife had an equally similar experience about a week ago at a casino. She never gambles. She literally just stopped by with a friend. She knew she’d win, and won enough cash to pay for the brakes her car needed. It worked out.. Somehow the universe aligns when you ALLOW it to.. when you accept it.

    The ‘I always lose’ concept gets stale. The universe, however, hears it so much that it starts to believe YOU when you say it.

    Just start saying something different.

    I am going to try.. I am going to experiment. I want to change my reality.. So to do so I need to believe my reality has changed.

    This is an experience I’d like some help with. If you feel yourself to be in the same rut, the same insane space of media drain, go with me. Take a trip down this path.. put another log on the fire and let’s sit around it and ask for some positive vibes by sending some out .. you are among friends.

  • This photographer chronicles Pennsylvania’s forgotten industrial towns and people

    This photographer chronicles Pennsylvania’s forgotten industrial towns and people

    This photographer chronicles Pennsylvania’s forgotten industrial towns and people:

    THIS IS A GREAT ARTICLE..

    Photographer Niko J. Kallianiotis chronicles Pennsylvania’s forgotten coal towns and people. After the presidential election, his work took on special resonance.

    A sampling of some photos …


     

  • The Easter Saturday conundrum: Lights Out. Then on.

    The Easter Saturday conundrum: Lights Out. Then on.

    A few days ago the light on the computer desk blew. My wife was sitting writing a check out for a bill.. no better time for a light to fade away than when you’re preparing to watch hard earned cash float down the river of bank fees and bill collection. Nonetheless, given the current state of busy affairs for my family, I have not been able to even remember to get to the store to pick up more light bulbs.. It was on my ‘thangs’ to do list.

    …and now it’s not.

    Because this morning, only moments ago as I write this post, the light actually came back on by itself. Really, it did.  A miracle bulb! Burns out! And re-flares itself!

    An Easter Saturday mystery.

    I am not lying, the light literally rejuvenated itself while my son was playing Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare 2 (I call it Vegetables vs Corpses to annoy him) .. while I Was laughing about my joke of a name, and also secretly panicking because our dryer suddenly stopped working this weekend, the light literally resurrected itself from the dead.

    And while I am not trying to say this is a message from God or a spirit, there is some form of high strangeness that a light, dead, lights up again. Rising from the dead. And what makes this all the more weird: It happened three days after the light burned out…..

    Of course, since it is the modern world, the first thing I did was search Google. And found this interesting REDDIT post in the Glitch in the Matrix.. Someone with logic said this:

    There may be a logical explanation. Inside a light bulb is a filament: a thin metal wire, coiled up like a spring. Electricity causes the filament to heat up and glow. After many heating/cooling cycles, the filament may break and the light is “burned out”.

    However, the little metal spring may only be broken in one spot and could still be bouncing around inside the lightbulb. Sometimes, (due to heating, cooling, or vibration), the little spring will reconnect to the place it broke off from and you’ll get a little more life out of the bulb before it finally burns out for good.

    Logic is necessary during moments of mystery.
    And the light goes on.

     

  • Stranger Things: Centralia the lost town, an interview with director Joe Sapienza

    Stranger Things: Centralia the lost town, an interview with director Joe Sapienza

    Before beginning, a few tidbits of information need revealing. I was born and raised in Centralia. At least for a time, until my family was forced out along with many others in the 1980s.
    The time was strange.. as a child, it felt surreal. Upended.. odd…last minute rites to a town that was. And as time went on, wounds healed.. mine fires quelled.. And people were left with dusting off the old coal region relics of history to figure out just exactly what happened…

    I recently interviewed Joe Sapienza, the director of a film making waves amongst smaller venues called CENTRALIA: PENNSYLVANIA’S LOST TOWN.   I had the chance to see it in Tamaqua, PA, last fall during a private screening. Since that time, it has been changed a bit, and a finished product, exceeds most people’s desires. The movie is amazing–take it from me, a former resident. It uses information from residents, historical facts and artifacts and news clips from the likes of WNEP and others in the Northeastern Pennsylvania marketplace. It memorializes what was.. what will never be again.

    And for Sapienza, it wasn’t much of a problem for him to acquaint himself with the storyline of Centraila.  Joe Sapienza is a freelance producer and videographer who dropped out of high school and, after getting a GED and working in a job he hated at the post office, went back to school… He finished in 2010 with a thesis for Drexel University surrounding the events of Centralia..

    Sapienza told me that he learned about Centralia in 2005, that he was intrigued, and then began to delve into David DeKok’s FIRE UNDERGROUND book.   “I pitched the Centralia premise in class and got approved in September 2013,” he told the HORROR REPORT. “We began filming for the short senior project titled America’s Lost Town in January 2014 to April 2014. We overshot everything because I figured I might extend it after graduation.”  The team that helped connect dots and create a documentary all developed into people successful in their career adventures.. For example, Allyson Kircher, the producer,  now works for Netflix as a production coordinator.

    Sapienza continued, “I did just that and I hired another producer with whom I was friends with and graduated with, Allyson Kircher, and then extended more shooting dates from July 2014 to September 2016. During that period, we shot more b-roll and more interviews and acquired rights to news footage, more photos, and music rights. This is my third feature documentary and is one of my favorites so far,” he explained.  “We worked on this documentary extensively and a lot of labor went into it to perfect it, all with my own funding, crew, cameras and lighting with a total cost of $16,000.00; over three years including post production and marketing, which is extremely low budget. Had I not had my own gear and many good friends in the business to help, this would’ve never happened and the short would’ve been it.”

    It was hard work that paid off. Most people who have seen this documentary have been amazed with its accuracy of events and zeal to promote what really happened in the little town that was.  The story of Centralia is fabled, with it’s past comes riddles of strangeness like plane crashes and stories of a peaceful hamlet in the 80s era of Reagan and MTV. The perfect storm of the 1980s struck, with it came a mine fire’s wrath and populace forced to relocate …

    Sapienza was interested in Centralia for the same reason so many others are: The fact that an underground mine fire is raging.  To contemplate a danger that does not show a face is interesting.. Where there is smoke, there is fire. You just can’t see it. Sapienza told the HORROR REPORT,  “I went on Dave DeKok’s site and found his photo collection and became obsessed with all of the photos, and I read the Renee Jacob’s book because the photos really put things in perspective for me. I saw the town when it was intact and saw the people who were affected by this mess, and in my head visually I saw a real sad desperate story that needed to be told through the lens of a camera. I’m a child of the 80’s so when I saw photos of the kids and some photos of the elderly people from the town during that era, in a weird way, it reminded me of my childhood and my grandparents growing up in Philadelphia during that decade of 1980. So, in some weird unexplainable way, I was relating and connecting to these people through the photos, so I became really obsessed with the story more and more…like a sickness really, but in a good way!”

    A little caveat to the comment, and for full disclosure it’s worth telling: I  appeared on page 13 of the Renee Jacobs book.  And quite frankly, for some strange reason, still recall the exact day in my life when the picture was taken..

    Sapienza did have some trouble as he first started his voyage into the the Centralia world. People did not talk to him. Doors closed. Phones hung up. Until he met Tom Dempsey, perhaps one of the greatest local historians and experts in not only Centralia but all that is the eastern and Central Pennsylvania region. Dempsey, Sapienza said, and DeKok, gave him the information he needed to begin his tale of mine fire. Sapienza was able to tie some people together within his own circle of connections and eventually met up with people from the Coddington family–a famed family in the town for numerous reasons.  “John Coddington’s granddaughter at Drexel University just a couple years below me?!” he said, “I still can’t believe it, it was like this was meant to be because we had nobody, I had no residents or former residents that would talk to me, all but one person until the Coddington’s came along.”

    “I wanted to set the entire timeline out in the documentary and tell the audience exactly what happened and why it happened through the stories of the residents, former residents, news clips, photos, news articles, and the government officials and lawyers that were all involved in the Centralia story, told from the heart and not from the “Silent Hill” perspective, “Sapienza said. “At that point, only two firms turned us down for interviews, Blaschak Coal Company and the law firm of Rosenn Jenkins & Greenwald who represented the Commonwealth in the lawsuit that was initiated by the remaining residents. So, to answer the question, I think many residents past and present know the story of Centralia in their minds and like to embrace it in their own way, and I think it has a very enriched history and many little back stories. I think people will learn its history and see that the mine fire was not the only culprit in the story. We told exactly what happened and what the future holds for Centralia, right to the point, and hopefully everyone will embrace it.”

    He also became immersed in the area where the filming was taking place. “My crew and I would frequently go to May’s because it was just convenient and right down the street from Centralia,” Sapienza told the HORROR REPORT. “But we went to the Mineshaft Café and Fabrizio’s a few times for lunch and dinner that the cast and crew enjoyed. We also made it a point to stop at Dairy Queen on the way back to Philadelphia through Pottsville, it was a ritual. We took a photo of everyone under the first crew in the parking lot after we wrapped in April 2014 for the short version.”

    I asked Sapienza about Graffiti Highway. I asked him about why, in his thoughts, people traveled for miles to states away to see such a place.. He is as perplexed as me, quite frankly. Sapienza commented, “I don’t get it but when we interviewed tourists on that highway we got the same answer again and again, that they wanted to see what all the buzz was about, look at the huge crack in the road, and look at drawings of penises.”

    Centralia, and Graffiti Highway, has been in the news as of late. State Police are cracking down on people spray painting the road. Along with it, warnings that tickets and fines, arrests and all the like could occur.. A now infamous ‘Barbie Car race’ set for May was what seemingly set of cops to put more of a focus on the town that was.  Sapienza told the HORROR REPORT,  “I did read about the Barbie Car race but the trespassing issues have been going on for years and the state police began enforcing it a couple months prior. What bothers me is that the graffiti is now out of control and is now within the borough, on trees, signs, and other roadways that run through Centralia. I think the state police should crack down on the graffiti that’s now developing within the borough, and I’m sure they’re doing that now.”

    x x x x

    Not only did Joe Sapienza make a film about the town, but he was so moved to the situation that he also helped try cleaning it. Sapienza started cleanup efforts with EPCAMR director Robert Hughes in an attempt to rid the town of trash. Sapienza commented, “Robert Hughes really pulled through on that and he got us the dumpsters and volunteers that we needed and Tom Hynoski- volunteer fire chief let us use the Centralia borough hall to stage the event.”  For the future? The cleaning may depend on the state’s capitol. Sapienza said, “It will take some time, but it all depends on the people in Harrisburg for help in funding EPCAMR’s projects.” 

    “It was really depressing to see because I knew that at one time these areas were people’s back yards and homes and there’s paint buckets, swimming pools, couches, floor tiles, broken glass, diapers, needles, pill bottles, all kinds of shit all over the place. So, that sparked the idea of a clean-up event. .”

    x x x x

    For fans of the HORROR REPORT who have followed me since 2001, you probably know my history and affinity to Centralia.. for others, you may only know about the ‘SILENT HILL’ film, which supposedly is based VERY LOOSELY on the events of the town. More than a few tourists I encountered over the years believed they were going to not only see fire from the ground, but also paranormal entities and ghosts.  They come to find out… it’s just a vacant town. Nothing left to see. If there were ghosts, even they left.

    There is even a story about a curse in Centralia. That an old priest condemned the town to die a horrible death because of a famed Irish workers rights group called the Molly Maguires. Sapienza said, “Our main goal was we wanted to debunk the Centralia curse, and we did. We proved that it was an urban legend that is totally inaccurate. Tom Dempsey explained it very clearly and debunks it on video. The curse segment is about 5 minutes long and was cut from the final cut that will be shown in theaters along with the 5 minute clean-up segment because we needed to cut things down. These deleted segments will be restored on DVD as extras.”

    While paranormal entities are supposedly recorded in cemeteries around the said, Sapienza said he hears nothing but “ambience.”

    x x x x

    Being the HORROR REPORT, I cannot leave this entire story go without some equation to modern pop culture horror or sci-fi. For much of my life, I thought of Centralia as the town from THE GOONIES. Rabble rousing friends and authority-questioning people attempting to save their town.. But after seeing last year’s STRANGER THINGS on Netflix, I think of it more like that.. Like the government, not fully equipped to handling a situation… like the friends, going missing because of other-worldy events taking them… like the adults, blind too often to what ails them…

    Yes, Centralia is a stranger thing. A tiny town that was wiped off the map because of a fire, but also incompetence among leaders.. And fate. And just pure old bad luck. Joe Sapienza and his team proved that in CENTRALIA: PENNSYLVANIA’S LOST TOWN.



    Upcoming screenings for the film:

    May 6, 2017 • Pottsville, PA

    Saturday, May 6th, 7:00PM at the Majestic Theater
    209 N Centre St, Pottsville, PA 17901
    Tickets: $10. A portion of the sales will go to the Centralia Legion POST 608 in Wilburton, PA.

    May 7, 2017 • Pottsville, PA

    Sunday, May 7th, 2:00PM at the Majestic Theater
    209 N Centre St, Pottsville, PA 17901
    Tickets: $10. A portion of the sales will go to the Centralia Legion POST 608 in Wilburton, PA.

    June 3, 2017 • Zelienople, PA

    Saturday, June 3rd, 1:00PM at The Strand Theater
    119 North Main St, Zelienople, PA. 16063
    Tickets: $5 for students and $7 for adults.

    June 4, 2017 • Zelienople, PA

    Sunday, June 4th, 1:00PM at The Strand Theater
    119 North Main St, Zelienople, PA. 16063
    Tickets: $5 for students and $7 for adults.

    June 10, 2017 • Lancaster, PA

    Saturday, June 10th, 7:00PM at the Zoetropolis Theater
    315 W James St, Lancaster, PA 17603
    Tickets: $10. A portion of the sales will go to the Centralia Legion POST 608 in Wilburton, PA.

    June 16, 2017 • Tamaqua, PA

    Friday, June 16th, 7:00PM at the Tamaqua Arts Theater
    125 Pine St, Tamaqua, PA 18252
    Tickets: $10. A portion of the sales will go to the Centralia Legion POST 608 in Wilburton, PA.

    June 17, 2017 • Tamaqua, PA

    Saturday, June 17th, 2:00PM at the Tamaqua Arts Theater
    125 Pine St, Tamaqua, PA 18252
    Tickets: $10. A portion of the sales will go to the Centralia Legion POST 608 in Wilburton, PA.

    June 24, 2017 • Allentown, PA

    Saturday, June 24th, 8:00PM at Civic Theater
    527 N 19th St, Allentown, PA 18104
    Tickets: $10 adult, $8 student & senior, $6 for members. A portion of the sales will go to the Centralia Legion POST 608 in Wilburton, PA.

    June 25, 2017 • Allentown, PA

    Sunday, June 25th, 1:00PM at Civic Theater
    527 N 19th St, Allentown, PA 18104
    Tickets: $10 adult, $8 student & senior, $6 for members. A portion of the sales will go to the Centralia Legion POST 608 in Wilburton, PA.

    August 19, 2017 • Lewisburg, PA

    Saturday, August 19th, 2:00PM at the Campus Theater
    413 Market St, Lewisburg, PA 17837
    Tickets: $10. A portion of the sales will go to the Centralia Legion POST 608 in Wilburton, PA.

  • While walking in nearby woods yesterday evening I came across…

    While walking in nearby woods yesterday evening I came across…

    While walking in nearby woods yesterday evening I came across some strange slightly-snow covered oddities..

    The woods are strange in general to me.. Quiet but yet somehow they reserve secrets that trees are just dying to speak of if only they could .. But these two sights, carvings on trees and a shack on the ground, gave me a creepy vibe .. One that forced me to abandon further walking and turn back. 

    If you look at the bottom of the photo, that’s Mutley the Dog’s head poking up. He refused to go near the makeshift shack. And when HE refused ?? I refused.

    If a man lives in the forest but no one hears him, does he really live at all?

  • WARM NOVEMBER THANK YOU

    WARM NOVEMBER THANK YOU

    Is it my imagination or has this year simply vanished in time? Lines grains of sand… slowly..slowly..slowly moving their way through the hour glass. Only in this case, an hour felt like a minute and minutes sped by at the rate I don’t think I ever conjured before..

    Speaking of the Conjuring, sort of a bad segway, with how quickly the year actually went I never had the chance to see CONJURING 2 at the movie theater when it was released. I fixed that the other night with a REDBOX rental .. I loved it. One of the truly scariest movies I have seen in some time. James Wan, yet again, did not disappoint.  I would say we have another contender for the potential 2016 movie of the year on this website..

    Meanwhile, I wanted to give a friendly November thank you to everyone. As we enter the holiday season, I start to get filled with love and nostalgia. More than even the rest of the year … I try to dissuade nostalgia from entering my mind; But I keep the love as long as I can. In that spirit, thank you all for reading, thank you all for spending the seconds a day, minutes a day, or however long a day you do spend on this website. At times I feel I am doing a lackluster job, because between basketball and soccer practice for my son and work for myself, even more time than usual escapes me. Then I see the numbers of people who read this site weekly, and it gives me the spirit to keep going..

    Bryan
    11/13/16

    x x x

  • School days of August

    School days of August

    ​I had a bit of an emotional morning the other day .. at a strange place no less: A gas station..

    After filling my car with regular octane, I walked into the store to grab a snack and coffee … and noticed Halloween candy. Halloween candy!?  And back to school signs! Autumn!? School buses!?

    I have been out of high school long enough to not care as much about the change of seasons as I did then. For years now, the only real difference between the heat of summer and vibrant colors of fall has been the reemergence of buses and children with faces of dread waiting for their ride to the hallowed halls of wherever..

    But this year, the emotions will be much higher. Much more real. This year, after all, will be my son’s first year of the real deal: Kindergarten. On a bus. At a school..

    My wife told me she plans on having emotions that first day. I casually said I understand and tried to toughen my own upper lip—though I know full well I will shed as many tears of time that she will.  Along with that, with my typical mindset, I will have every type of worry flying through my mind.. From now and until forever.

    # # #

    It really is a strange thing to consider.. After all of this formative years of my son’s early age passing by so quickly, I have become inclined to long for the nights of bottles and diaper changes. My heart aches with nostalgia when I think back to Thomas the Train toys and Caillou marathons. Well… maybe not the Caillou part. 

    But all of this!? All of this done? Gone? Five years already over? Yes indeed.. and now a new phase of life has come. The school time. Life will change for my son. My wife. And me. 

    # # #

    Life did begin changing this summer. Starting around July, my wife and I decided that not only would Ayden play soccer, but that WE WOULD COACH A TEAM! So we signed up and go the same shirts as the kids.. two games into the regular season already behind us, the shocking part of all of this (more than even the notion of two people being thrown into a coaching scenario)  is how fast all of the soccer season as gone as well!  Early July, when practice was over, the light of day would continue ferociously into the 9pm hour.  Now as we edge towards the end of summer, we begin to see the darkness creeping in… 820..810..8pm.. Slowly but surely, the time of tomorrow is beginning today. No stopping it now. Progress halts for no one.

    # # #

    The emotional change from one ‘season’ of life to another is most likely shared by what YOU have gone through. OR going through now.

    The school year can reap amazing benefits.. or leave you feeling collapsed by the weight of time. 

    The festival of Samhain just around the corner, as is the traditional highlights of the autumn season.

    # # #

    Perhaps all of this sounds too over the top? Too melodramatic even.. If that is the case, chances are you never had a child or don’t have one now.. you do not realize the beautiful feeling of holding your spawn close and providing as much love for him or her as you could… 

    We have a room of toys currently. The contents of rooms change.. The vestiges of the past get dusty. But they all meant something … They all had a purpose. The new future will be filled with homework and tests… eventually adulthood.

    I am not ready yet!

    I want the first five years of life back all over again. 

    But the future is now.

    And bus doors are opening ever so soon.

  • THE OLD DAYS OF DRIVE INS

    THE OLD DAYS OF DRIVE INS

    My local mall (so as long as the mall exists, more on that later) has a drive in.. with spring nearing summer *weather still not feeling like it* a drive in will open there.. Which is a throwback, isn’t it?

    But a much bigger throwback was a post that a friend of mine put on his Facebook page ..Old images of former drive ins in my county. At this point all of those drive ins have been wrecked and knocked down.

    If you look at the one image close enough, you can see “I love Sandy” .. While growing up I always wondered to myself if that person ever stayed with Sandy … and now when I see the picture 20 years after it was knocked down, I wonder again…

  • 90th Anniversary: Knoebels opens–and promises a new room of scares!

    90th Anniversary: Knoebels opens–and promises a new room of scares!

    Simply put: Knoebels is the best park in the state of Pennsylvania.
    Scratch that.. the nation..
    Scratch that.. the world.
    Need I go on?

    Perhaps there is a bias here. I have been traveling to Knoebels Grove since I was an infant.. I go every year–being about 25 minutes away helps.

    The park has free admission. Free parking. And yet with the influx of new people over the past decade, it has managed to keep its past in check. It still feels like home. No one ever frowns—-not one person who passes me by in the crowd seems unhappy at all.  Knoebels is an escape from reality.. it is quaint and fun. Good fun. And fantasy…
    And this year: It includes an extra scare.

    The haunted house at Knoebels is a fun little ride. Pizza first or after is fine, there’s a stand right next to it. Along with DipNDots ice cream.

    This year, for the 90th anniversary of Knoebels, it’s time to scream. The park promises new ghosts and a new room in the famed haunted house.

    13083318_719963144773262_7864900917242661988_n

    The 90th anniversary press blitz has been a fantastic tribute to the success of this park… Make a trip if you can..

    The haunted house, for sure, will be on the list for me during my most likely MANY encounters with the park.

    And now that my son is 5, perhaps it’s time to acquaint him with the ghostly screams and beeping buses that the haunted house has to offer..

     

  • FORECAST for Foggy nightmares in the AM

    FORECAST for Foggy nightmares in the AM

    A shroud of fog..

    A hint of fear.

    Nothing there..

    That you hear.

    Just the muffled scream,

    Of humanity’s dream.

    Lagging behind,

    And losing steam.