Posted by samantha on Apr 11, 2014 in What I've Done
Thoughts of otherworldly beings are often ignored until October rolls around. But even after plastic ghosts and ghouls are hidden in storage bins in the attic for the year, the Shadow Chasers continue their hunt for real-life paranormal activity.
The Shadow Chasers of Middle Tennessee focus on both providing proof of hauntings as well as debunking them.
“I’ve always been interested in the paranormal,” said Beth Swain, a member of Shadow Chasers for four years. “After you experience something, you never forget it.”
Swain said the “Holy Grail” for her was when she listened to recordings after an investigation and heard something she missed previously.
She describes two different types of hauntings. The first, called residual, is a repitition of what the ghost did in its life. It replays a particular scene or habit from life. The second, referred to as intellectual, is more active, with the ghost interacting with its environment.
Shadow Chasers of Middle Tennessee is one of the few teams, with about 15 members, in existence that has liability insurance for their investigations, which are done upon request and for free. Five investigations in two weeks shows a pretty active trend, and winter months always mean more calls because there are fewer animals and insects about to blame for unusual sounds or events.
They also have a variety of equipment that is used and maintained. From nightvision cameras and digital thermometers to K-2 meters and EMF detectors, each team member is armed with technology to prove or disprove a purported haunting.
“The EMF detector and K-2 meters measure electromagnetic fields. We always take a base reading before we start to make sure something isn’t interfering. If you have something causing an electromagnetic leak, it can actually cause hallucinations and paranoia. We want to rule that out first,” Swain said.
Cameras, video recorders and night vision are all used to record both control shots and possible evidence of paranormal presences.
The digital thermometers are equipped with lasers to pinpoint the temperature of a given area. This helps determine if a cold spot is caused by an explainable inference, such as a leak or draft, or if it is an unexplained change that could be caused by the tell-tale shadow person.
Swain and a fellow Shadow Chaser Tammy Talbott have many stories of strange happenings.
Talbott said she once witnessed a “residual” haunting of a little girl in a yellow dress and a doctor interacting on the floor of a room in a Nashville church. She later learned the church had once been a sanitarium. The doctor committed suicide, and it was later learned that he had molested the little girls he treated.
Other observations according to Swain and Talbott, include a family in the old health department, which acted as a tuberculosis hospital, and ghosts in period dress going in and out the walls at the SunTrust building.
“If we can document it, we get excited,” Swain said. “We base most of our stuff on scientific findings using our technology. We will investigate before we get personal experiences and accounts from people.”
To raise money for Shadow Chasers’ liability insurance, the team hosts Shadow Walks in October. Group tours wander throughout the Square and surrounding streets to visit about 15 locations that have been investigated by the teams and have evidence of being “haunted.”
Voice recordings have been caught in the Center for the Arts, Social nightclub and the old health department.
Two separate recordings from Social reveal paranormal activity.
“It’s always got something going on,” Swain said.
One recording clearly offers a loud game of billiards being played over the conversation by Shadow Chaser team members while they investigate the basement where there are no pool tables.
A second, more creepy example replayed by a tour guide during a Shadow Walk has the muffled sound of someone dropping something followed by a raspy voice saying, “Get. Out. Now.”
At the Center for the Arts, which was once the public library, children have been heard singing downstairs, where the children’s library was. There are tales of a woman in a white dress and a man named Harvey in the building, as well.
During an investigation at Simply Southern, a new home decor shop on the Square, Talbott had crawled through a small opening in the floor into the basement. When Swain perched over the hole to check on her, a man’s face appeared at a ladder as if he was going to come up the ladder.
“We get excited,” Talbott said. “We usually look at one another and it’s, ‘Holy — , did you see that?!'”
Column: Ghost hunt has reporter jumping at shadows
As a journalist you have an opportunity to do some really interesting and amazing things.
Still, a ghost hunting exhibition? That isn’t one that was on the bucket list, but as a curious soul, acquiescing came quickly.
Randy and Belinda Smotherman, proprietors of Smotherman’s Antiques on the Square, recently agreed to let the Shadow Chasers do an investigation in the company of The Daily News Journal reporter and photographer.
After taking a few moments to greet each other, the tour was under way.
“We’ll see how active it is. Hopefully we’ll get something tonight,” said Beth Swain, one of the Shadow Chasers of Middle Tennessee.
“I’ve charged my recorder and camera,” she said, checking her equipment.
Already, this reporter was feeling anxious and still excited. On the one hand, yes, some activity would be great for a story, but the reality also brought some serious questions to light. Do you believe in ghosts? If not ghosts, what?
As an educated person, knowledge armed me with a plethora of excuses of what could explain the goings-on that the Shadow Chasers experience regularly.
The Smothermans have encountered “hauntings” since acquiring the painting of a little girl, about age 3 or 4. The painting was done post-mortem, as was common during Victorian times. It may be the first and only time the image of the child was captured, as photography was not readily available.
Reports have included someone tugging at the bottom of Belinda’s skirt and of Randy finding a game, which was placed behind glass bottles on a shelf, with the pieces scattered on the game board on the floor. The bottles were not disturbed. The Smothermans have also heard a child’s laughter when no one else is in the store.
The Shadow Chasers have investigated Smotherman’s before, and their accounts include some K-2 meter activity, some of which was in response to direct questioning. This led to the belief that it was Julia who is running free in the store. A black mass was recorded through photography.
Belinda and Randy Smotherman say their good nights, lock the front door, and go through a door at the back of the store. The lights go out and everyone stands still, allowing their eyes to adjust to the darkness. Only the street lamps on the Square provide any glimpse at how to get around the store full of historic pieces and timeless treasures.
Swain and her partner in the investigation, Jacob Skoropat, start setting up the K-2 meters to detect electromagnetic energy.
“The nice thing is when it goes off on command and in response to questions, and then you can build a story,” said Skoropat.
Small Maglite flashlights are set up on furniture, shelving and other level surfaces. Skoropat tests the lights by stomping the ground nearby and pounding the top of the surface. They are definitely off.
Or are they? Almost immediately, the now unattended light glows on.
The immediate reaction is to look around and then take several steps back.
The light fades to black again. A K-2 meter shows a little activity.
Every now and again the flashlight glows from faint to fully lit. The light flickers, and then goes out.
Swain and Skoropat ask a few questions: “Do you like playing with the light?” or “Is that Julia playing with the light? If so, will you do it again for me, please?”
Everyone waits. They are poised, still and tense, for anything to happen. A clock “purrs.”
“I don’t know what else you would call that. It cooed like the sound of a dove,” says Helen Comer, the DNJ photographer who is charged with capturing the mood and any evidence of the evening. “It was like a cuckoo clock, but I don’t see one.”
To my ears, the sound was like someone trying to stop a pendulum or clock cogs, but causing a vibration instead. Too bad no one was close enough to the row of clocks, whose ticking are the only sound in the darkened store.
Despite the fact that there is no air conditioning, no drafts and no air movement seen or felt whatsoever, a single price tag moves back and forth. When Skoropat speaks the name “Julia,” the tag turns, as if a small hand grasping it has turned to respond to being called.
Now things are just getting weird.
Is that chill from fear or from a paranormal being nearby?
The Shadow Chasers, who have been taking control shots with cameras, return to their equipment kits to try another option, including voice recorders and video cameras. Swain finds that her batteries have drained. Skoropat’s electronics have done the same.
Undaunted by the situation, Swain goes for her smartphone, which promptly freezes and locks up.
Skoropat places a touch sensor up near the center of the store.
“It is essentially a touch box,” he said.
One of his own creations, the box has a green “Yes” light and a red “No.” Testing it, Skoropat shows how the lights work independently. The hope is that any apparitions will use the box to communicate.
Not long after he gets it up and running, all of the lights flare up, green and red together.
“I’ve never seen it do that,” Skoropat says as he resets the machine and tests once again.
And yet again, all the lights come on.
Could it be possible that someone was trying to communicate?
After that, things quiet down. The team, Shadow Chasers and DNJ staff find various chairs and wait for the next sign.
Comer is drawn to faint shadows in the corner near the back of the store, but these are hardly noted, as they could be cause by movement from outside cast by street lights or the Smothermans moving in the background.
Still, The DNJ photographer notes the door to the back room is clearly closed, and there doesn’t seem to be anyone outside.
Just as a signal of surrender is about to go up, stacked items in the corner of the store knock together. The bell on the door tinkles, but no one is there to cause it to stir. Skoropat goes to investigate with Comer.
The Smothermans return a short time later to turn on the lights and unlock the door.
“So, did you see anything?”
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Posted by samantha on Apr 11, 2014 in What I've Done
Carpe Cafe is more than a place to get a cup of coffee, although you can get a great dark chocolate raspberry mocha.
The new cafe in downtown Smyrna is an extension of Carpe Artista, a nonprofit looking to cultivate the arts and creativity through instruction, mentoring and arts programs.
“This is sort of the hub for that,” says Ron Alley, executive director of Carpe Artista. “The profits from the shop go to programs for Carpe Artista.”
The atmosphere is welcoming with touches of the unusual and mismatched furniture — all donated. The music changes throughout the day, from retro rock ‘n’ roll to current hits as artists apply paint to canvas and friends catch up at a corner table.
“You know how you see all the time where musicians or artists are sketching out their next big idea on a napkin?” asks Susan Gulley, one of Alley’s partners in Carpe Cafe. “This is that place. That’s the visual we have in our head for this place.”
Gulley says the coffee shop provides a relaxed atmosphere artists need to thrive and feel comfortable enough to create.
“We wanted to do something to build that community hometown place neighbors go to,” Alley says. “It’s a dual purpose. It’s a coffee shop, but it’s also an attempt to revitalize the area. We are working on a movement to create an arts district here.”
On the menu: More than a coffee shop, Carpe Cafe serves breakfast, including muffins, cinnamon rolls and a breakfast casserole, as well as sandwiches, soups, salads and sweets for later in the day.
The signature chicken salad is made with pineapple for a sweetness that makes it memorable. The Carpe Stack is the cafe’s club-style sandwich with turkey, roast beef, bacon, smoked Gouda and pickles.
You can also banish the chill with a savory soup such as tomato basil bisque, beef and vegetable, loaded cheesy potato, chicken tortilla, broccoli cheese and mulligatawny, a spicy Indian-style soup.
What’s the cost: Breakfast muffins are $2 and less, and breakfast sandwiches with baked egg soufflé and Canadian bacon on a wheat or English muffin are $3. You can also get a breakfast casserole with baked egg, cheese and ham for $3.
Cheese grits are served only on Saturday for $1.75 a serving.
Sandwiches are $5 and less. Soup is $2 for a cup and $5.50 for a bowl. Additional sides are $2 or $2.50.
Combo meals, with a half sandwich and cup of soup or side salad, are $5.50.
Desserts are $2.
What to know: Carpe Cafe is a programing arm of the larger non-profit arts organization, Carpe Artista. The mission for the coffee shop is to provide revenue for the instruction, materials and programing necessary to keep Carpe Artista going.
Currently the cafe staff is limited to mostly volunteers. If you would like to volunteer, contact Carpe Cafe.
Even if you don’t like traditional coffee, you can still find lots to love at Carpe Cafe. Try an infused tea, hot chocolate, iced coffee or soft drink.
Breakfast is served to 10 a.m. during the week, with lunch beginning at 11 a.m.
Hours of operation: 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, closed Sunday
Carpe Cafe
115 Front St.
Smyrna
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Posted by samantha on Apr 11, 2014 in What I've Done
Entrepreneur Mai Nguyen came up with the concept for Cool Beans Italian Bistro, fusing her Asian background — she’s Vietnamese — and her love of Italian food. The two cuisines are similar in their pasta bases, she said.
And while the idea of Asian and Mediterranean influences may make you think twice, it is a perfect combination to create truly flavorful and unique dishes to pique your palate.
On the menu: The first of these delicious combinations is the Wings del Mediterraneo, an appetizer featuring chicken wings seasoned, breaded and tossed with cherry peppers and crumbled feta cheese, creating a delicate blend of heat and mellow.
The Focaccia Italiano may look like a pizza and eat like a pizza, but it doesn’t taste like your usual pizza. It starts with homemade focaccia bread — made from scratch each day — and topped with mozzarella cheese, seasoned and roasted ground beef, Italian sausage, tomato, parsley and red onion, but what really makes this a specialty is the way the mixture of flavors pop when you add a little lemon juice.
Another example of the melding of cultures and tastes comes in the form of Tilapia Authentica. Nguyen’s hometown of New Orleans can be found with a slight Cajun seasoning on a fresh, roasted tilapia filet, which is topped with sautéed tomato in a creamy, light lemon butter sauce. It is paired with parmesan green beans al dente.
Grab an appetizer for $6 to $9. Pasta and seafood dishes are less than $15, and made-to-order pizzas start at $11.95 for a small and $16.95 for a large. Soups and salads are between $4 and $6. Sandwiches are less than $8.
Finish up with a sweet treat, such as “Sweetalicous” white chocolate bread pudding, a brownie supreme, or the Ultimate Turtle Cheesecake, all for $5.25 a serving.
The bistro has a full bar and will soon be stocked with a large selection of wine, as well as domestic and imported beer.
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Posted by samantha on Apr 11, 2014 in What I've Done
As her tennis shoes pound the pavement, Paula Thomas contemplates her meal menu, her lesson plan and the world’s problems.
With each exhale, she releases the week’s tensions and focuses on what is ahead and what the next step is for accomplishing her goals. And with each step, she comes closer to reaching the completion of her bucket list: running a half marathon in all 50 states.
“I was the unathletic one growing up,” Thomas says with a smile. “My sister was the athlete.”
First steps
During her time in graduate school at Middle Tennessee State University, Thomas signed up for an aerobics class hoping to work out her tension from her full class load, work, and, well, life. The first morning of the class the professor informed the students that aerobics was running.
“Guy Penny was my professor. He taught me how to run,” Thomas recalls. “We ran 3 miles three times a week.”
Thomas finished her master’s degree, got married, moved to attend a doctorate program, and had children. All the while she continued to run 3 miles three times a week.
After returning to Middle Tennessee, Thomas says she received a flyer about running a half marathon for Special Kids, a faith-based pediatric nursing care and rehabilitation facility. She was wary of going from3 miles to 13.1 — the distance of a half marathon — and was concerned with taking time from her growing family and its responsibilities.
“I just couldn’t throw it away,” Thomas said of the mailer. “And then my son came to me one night and he said he had heard me talking to his father about it. He said, ‘Mom, you and dad always tell us we can do anything we want to do. Go for it.'”
She was inspired by her son’s words. Until he followed them up with, “And you might as well do it before you get too old.”
That was 2001.
Today the MTSU accounting professor lacks only six races to cross off all 50 states and the nation’s capital. She has completed the Country Music Half Marathon, the Cincinnati Flying Pig, and many others, all within about five years.
“It’s sooner than I expected,” Thomas admits, saying she had hoped to complete the list by the time she was age 60. “I’m not that old yet.”
50 before 50
Gayle Jordan made the decision just after her 49th birthday to do 50 things she had never done before she turned 50.
Her proudest accomplishment was completing an Iron Man competition, even if it took two tries.
“I don’t do anything in small measures,” Jordan says. “That was my biggest accomplishment.”
Finishing an Iron Man — which requires the participant to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles and run a marathon distance of 26.2 miles — requires a great deal of training, stamina and mental focus. The same could be said of Jordan’s current pursuit — her law degree.
“It isn’t simply about education. It is about a dream,” she says.
Jordan also did simpler tasks. She got a tattoo that had a very special meaning to her. And she drank an authentic British lime gimlet, made with Rose’s Lime Juice and gin, with her daughter’s British friend.
“I said that if you made the suggestion for my list, you had to do it with me,” recalls Jordan, who also climbed a 14,000-foot mountain in Colorado with her son, at his suggestion.
Jordan, like Thomas, finds great joy in crossing off another accomplishment from her bucket list.
“The list is still there. I want to see the Tour de France, and I have lots of hiking on the list,” Jordan says. “I have to gauge what is more urgent versus what I can do later.”
All about the journey
Jordan says it’s about the experiences you have and hopefully inspiring others.
Thomas loves telling stories about the places she has visited while traveling for races or sights she has seen during her runs. She has completed the Goofy Challenge at Disney World, which requires athletes to complete a half marathon one day and a full marathon the following day. This was one of her favorite races. She also counts running across the Golden Gate Bridge in 2005 a highlight.
“It’s hard to compare with shutting down of a big city street to run, but I also love running in the red sands of the desert,” Thomas says. “I’ve been to Arizona multiple times.”
By her birthday in September, Thomas will complete the final races of her bucket list, including Delaware, New Jersey, Michigan, Nebraska and Hawaii, finishing her last race in Chicago.
She is still unsure what she will do after completing her list, but she is looking for “some fun fall runs.”
“Completing the bucket list is not the point,” Jordan says. “You can’t be greedy. You just try something new and enjoy the experience.”
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Posted by samantha on Apr 11, 2014 in What I've Done
Sign spinning is serious business.
Not only do local businesses and franchises benefit from the eye-catching, flipping and flying hand-held advertisements, but some talented young people are making a nice income while gaining a fandom reserved for B-list celebrities.
And if listening to an iPod playlist while acting like a goofball weren’t enough incentive for most teens and young adults looking for part-time jobs, the possibility of notoriety as “World’s Best” sign spinner — and a $20 an hour pay raise — has its perks.
Colton Kinslow, 20, an Oakland graduate, has been spinning signs for six years. He currently holds the title as state champion for his sign spinning abilities, which include the Scissor Catch, where he throws the sign and catches it with his legs while in a handstand, and the Helicopter Tip Toe that requires he catch a horizontally spinning sign on his feet in a handstand.
“This is not just a job. We are a team, and we see ourselves as a sport,” said Kinslow who returned Monday from Las Vegas where he competed in the National Sign Spinning Championships.
The state winner placed 44th out of more than 3,600 competitors.
Kinslow is an instructor, and he’s the Nashville manager for the AArrow Ads advertising company. He teaches his skills to other new spinners hired by AArrow Ads to help them be more effective for the businesses who hire the spinners.
The rookies — and veteran spinners — who work for the advertising firm do not just get to take a sign and go wave it. In fact they undergo rigorous training that includes stamina and strength drills.
“We practice two to four times a week,” Kinslow explained, as he supervised three sign spinners Thursday doing “suicide” running exercises.
The group also does pushups, weight-lifting and cardio to help build endurance for more technical spinning skills.
While the boys practiced Thursday several hoots and cheers come from passing cars on Old Fort Parkway and Thompson Lane.
“We are all trained to be professional advertisers,” Kinslow said.
Some of the sign spinners, such as Chris Wensink, is using his attention-getting techniques to put himself through college. Others use the paycheck to do what anyone else their age would do — go out to eat, buy video games and pay for gas.
Kinslow will make a trip to Myrtle Beach, S.C., next month to start a group out there for AArrow Ads. He plans to make a career out of his advertising skills. However, he admits he will finish school and get his bachelor’s degree in biology, “you know, as a fallback.”
“I’m putting myself through school,” Wensink said. “I’ve had other jobs before, as a store clerk, in restaurants. This is great because I get to act goofy and entertain. I mean, that is part of the job description, act like a goofball.”
Wensink has found his niche after spinning for only a month or so. Bryant Donovan has become a sign spinning guru with more than a year under his belt.
“I just do what feels right,” he said. “I love my job. I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing right now.”
Both Wensink and Donovan enjoy putting on a show and playing to the crowd, which may be why they have fans who honk and cheer them on when they spin on local corners.
“People can be really encouraging,” Wensink said.
They also plan to compete in next year’s sign spinning competitions on the state level, and hopefully the national level as well. Kinslow will also return to the competition.
“I was shooting for top 20. I will be ready for next year,” he said.
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