Charles Martin's Blog, page 11

The Barber – Haunted Guthrie

From Haunted Guthrie

http://www.amazon.com/Haunted-Guthrie-Oklahoma-America/dp/1467118060

In the basement of the old Gray Brothers building in Guthrie, antique hunters often meandered through stalls of old goods and sometimes found more than they bargained for. At times, a strong smell of cigar smoke filled the air, though there was no living soul around smoking. More sinister, and almost as famous as the cigar stench, are stories of people being tripped on the stairs by a mean spirit still playing tricks long after death.

Ivan Ridge, or “oh, that Ivan” as many older Guthrians remember him, was a major personality in the town for decades. He was the only child of parents who had come to Guthrie with the Land Run. The senior Ridge’s early barbershop was in the block at Harrison Avenue and 1st Street, where the family lived in an apartment above. Ivan Ridge grew from a gregarious boy into a “large man,” “tall and big” as some described him. Others added, “burly, and scary, with tattoos all over.”

While he had other shops, Ridge was best known for his space in the Gray Brothers’ building, where he followed in his father’s footsteps at the barbershop. There he would give haircuts and shaves, shooting the breeze with customers. Between patrons, Ridge would hang out at the edge of the building, smoking one of his ever-present cigars in the fresh air and playfully puffing it into people’s faces when he talked. If someone walked by him too closely, he would slyly stick out a shoe, tripping them with his long, beefy leg. Victims of his pranks might turn up their noses in an attempt to ignore him or even yell threats, but Ivan was too big a man to intimidate.

One Guthrian shared her family’s memory of Ridge working away in his barbershop and then banging on the pipes to tell his wife upstairs that he was ready for her to bring down his lunch. Ridge was married between four and eight times; local researchers in the Guthrie Genealogical Society have had difficulty pinning down the exact number. Although there is debate on how many wives Ridge had through his eventful life, everyone agrees that the divorces were unpleasant.

In addition to stories about his character, Ridge was famous for his great loves: motorcycles and cigars. He combined the two in regular excursions as he hopped onto his Harley Davidson with its sidecar and drove southeast to Florida. There he would board a ship to Cuba—this was before the communist revolution—and after a relaxing vacation, return with his sidecar packed with boxes of cigars.

Ivan Ridge passed away in 1981 at the age of 82. His body is buried in Summit View Cemetery between those of his parents. But many Guthrians believe he never really left.

Laurah Kilbourn’s Extra Special Fabrics store had its shop in the basement rooms of the Gray Brothers’ building until 2006. The space often smelled of Ridge’s strong cigars, but Kilbourn never thought much of it. With the amount Ridge smoked, the smell certainly would have worked its way into the woodwork. It was peculiar, however, that the cigar odor seemed stronger sometimes more than others, as if it had been freshly lit. No one had further explanations how wafts seemed to appear on the street outside, either.

More evident was when Kilbourn found “stuff knocked on the floor.” They were mostly dresses, which could not have fallen from their hangers by themselves. Store patrons even said they watched things suddenly fly off the shelves and racks as if someone had smacked them with a big hand. Kilbourn was glad to move to her new street-level shop down Oklahoma, even if it turned out to be haunted as well.

People still say they can smell cigar smoke in the basement of the Gray Brothers’ building and out front where Ridge once took his breaks. Some even say they’ve seen it, little puffs of smoke that look exhaled, swirling over a quiet, empty sidewalk. 

Ridge also seems to get around town. Nelda Brown of the Guthrie Genealogical Society recounted the time a man came in from California to do some family research. After a day in the files in the Carnegie Library, he returned to his room in the Pollard Inn. He was working at his laptop at the desk when he suddenly got the chills.

On the bed across the room, a strange indentation settled onto the covers. It was like “someone big” was sitting there, but no one was to be seen. Then came the familiar smell of cigar smoke. When he described the strange event to Brown later, she pointed out that his room was once the Ridges’ apartment.

One Guthrian reminiscing about Ridge and pondering his spirit described him as not an evil or even a very bad man, “just kind of mean.” She believed that “he’s stuck,” unable or unwilling to cross over, instead preferring to continue hanging out amid cigar smoke and pulling a few tricks now and again for his own amusement.

Sunny Acoustic Pop with a Chance of Rain – Saige Cross Review

Saige Cross w/ Seryn & The Azalea Project

8 pm, Tuesday, October 6

Trill Tavern

208 W. Harrison Ave., Guthrie

saigecross.com

$12, $14 at the door

Upbeat melodies and crisp production inject a cool buoyancy into Weather Balloon, the full-length debut from OKC singer-songwriter Saige Cross. A number of somber moments are woven into his lyrics, but when paired with Cross’s delicate guitar work and soothing, dexterous voice, they lift off the ground beautifully. If there was any red dirt in his music before, it has since been polished off to a clean shine.

Kicking off with a piano riff and a rhythmic guitar line—there aren’t any fiddles or mandolins here—the album begins with a catchy number called “Economy.” This song sets a bright tone, even featuring a whistle solo that counterpoints its wistful chorus about losing touch with oneself. It’s one of the more upbeat and broadly arranged songs in a tracklist that’s full of soft peaks and valleys.

Many of the tracks strip down to Cross’s solo guitar and voice, the latter of which proves especially tender in these moments. It isn’t surprising that he feels in his element here, given that his debut EP from last year was built solely from this approach. By comparison, the embellishments supporting other songs like the rousing “Grand Central Station” make Weather Balloon a more dynamic listen, but in an unintrusive way that preserves the intimate core.

When it reaches its downtempo conclusion and reveals the metaphor behind its title, the album’s lofty, acoustic, and often delicate feel becomes especially appropriate. That final track, “365,” echoes an air of acceptance heard in other parts of the album, an acceptance that what goes up must come down.

Saige Cross has assembled a strong effort here with all the cohesion and identity one looks for in a full-length debut. For all its soft, acoustic pop elements, Weather Balloon proves to be a grounded album that never falls flat.

Weather Balloon is currently available on iTunes and Spotify.

My Plan To Slow The Rate Of Mass Shootings That No One Will Like

Americans are in the midst of a familiar cycle of grief, rage, and ideological arguments following yet another school shooting in Oregon. The causes are complex but the proposed solutions are often simplistic and partisan, so here is my attempt to produce a feasible framework for reasonable regulation that could stem the tide of loose, unregistered weapons but also provide opportunities for responsible and trained gun owners to expand their freedoms.

All gun sales result in immediate gun registration. Any illegal use of a gun will result in the last registered owner being held liable. In the case of a stolen gun, the same protocols would be used to determine if owner is free of liability as are used for automobile theft. If gun has no record of a registered owner, gun producer is held liable for possibly selling unregistered weapons. Gun sellers assume registrations for all guns in stock until sold.
Guns cannot be carried or transported without a license. The type of weapon will determine the type of license as well as the training necessary for carrying that weapon. This licensing system would allow for the expansion of weapons that can be legally carried, but all weapons must be registered to be legally carried.
A strict licensing system would allow for concealed carry in otherwise gun free zones.
All licenses must be renewed.
Carrying a gun while inebriated results in immediate suspension of license.
Licensed gun owners caught carrying unregistered guns will have guns immediately registered at no cost or penalty to owner. If owner is carrying a weapon that they are not licensed to carry, gun is forfeited until proper license is procured.
Establishment of national gun buy-back system.
No limit on gun ownership so as long as owner is properly licensed and guns are registered.
Gifting guns still necessitates new registration.
All gunmakers are legally obligated to register all sales and all guns must be traceable.
Carrying an untraceable gun results in forfeiture of gun until the gun is registered and made traceable at cost of gun owner. Potentially an additional fine for repeat offenders.
Mental health history will be considered in licensing, but the existence of mental health treatment does not immediately forbid licenses. These instances will be considered on a case by case basis.

Many gun advocates fear licensing because of the threat of government forces collecting all arms to weaken resistance and often cite Nazi Germany and other cases to support their fears. In reality, America’s demographics and rich gun culture makes this threat unrealistic, but what is real is the continuing threat of unsecured and illegal guns getting into the wrong hands. Until we hold gun owners, sellers, and makers accountable for their weapons, this problem will continue. Conversely, we should reward and expand the rights of those gun owners that prove themselves responsible.

The One Piece Special Full Q & A

Note: this is the interview that was used for a write-up on the subject. To read that as well, click HERE!

{{Legend}}

Le Menu—a list of general music-related questions the interviewee “orders” from

Jarvix Asks—questions asked specifically with the artist(s) in mind, prepared or otherwise

The Envelope of Introspection—an envelope of blindly-drawn paper slips with open-ended life questions printed on them, courtesy of thoughtquestions.com

 

 

How did the One Piece Special come to be? Have you toyed with the idea for a long time, and how did you come up with that name and that brand?

For many years, I’ve strived to put together a band of my own. I have come across a lot of great musicians, but they had too many commitments. I wanted something that I would be able to do any time that I wanted to. I’ve seen local artists do sequences or play with tracks. I said, you know what? This is something very special, hence the One Piece Special. You know, you have 3-piece bands, 4-piece bands, you have a 20-piece orchestra, whatever it may be. I said, I’m gonna try to do this myself.

I came across many tracks from the 70s, 80s, 90s, even today with all the instruments already tracked and recorded, minus the drum set. So I play the drum set live and sing with it to give it that live element. I introduced it to the city roughly two to three months ago with an idea I came up with about four months ago.

Has anything surprised you since you’ve been playing Bricktown?

Yes! The generosity of the police officers. They’ve been letting me do my thing. They’ve been enjoying the music themselves, you know, coming up and giving me tips. Police officers getting out of their car in the middle of traffic to give me a contribution—that’s been very shocking. I’m glad that I have them on my side in what I’m doing.

I mean, you have a permit. Is that what they would harass you about?

Yes, they could harass me if I would have the right to be out there because I’m at such a high volume. I thought there would be some other stipulation that I would have to have, being amplified. A lot of street musicians, they just have a guitar or a djembe, but I’m bringing the whole shebang out there. I would have thought that they would investigate to see if I was out there lawfully. That’s happened one time, and he told me to carry on basically. He told me it sounded great, just wanted to check and see.

What is music?

What comes to mind mainly is music as a tool. It can put you in a good mood, lift your spirit. It’s a tool to bring people together. It can be utilized on so many different levels internationally with humankind. Everybody understands music. You may not know where it’s from, but you know that it’s music and that it sounds good. You may not understand their language. It may do something that makes you uncomfortable, but when you listen to music and you appreciate music, you can appreciate it no matter where it comes from. You can find the good and the peace of mind in music. That’s what music is to me.

When I play music, I try to cater to a lot of different nationalities and age groups. When I play music on the sidewalk, I don’t want people to just walk past saying, oh, he sounds pretty good, I’m gonna throw him a dollar. My purpose in playing music—I use it as a tool to make people feel good, to want to stop and actually dance. When people dance, it’s because they’re in a good spirit. You don’t dance because you’re sad. You don’t dance because you’re pissed off. (laughs) I love seeing people just dance randomly with each other. Complete strangers dance with each other because the music spoke to them, and they heard the same thing.

You also play in bands that play casinos and weddings and such. I’m sure you get paid for those, and you have built-in audiences there. What drew you to the streets?

The element of shock, of culture, of bringing something new that Oklahoma City does not have and has not had for years, that you would find in other cities like New York City, New Orleans, Austin, where music is a heavy influence. Over the years, I’ve gotten a lot of opportunity from Oklahoma to make a living doing music, doing what I love. I just wanted to give something back.

So music is sort of a secondary job for you. Does it ever feel like work?

The tear down, that’s it. There’s excitement in setting up because I know what I have to look forward to. I give it all I’ve got when I perform, when I play drums and sing, especially when the crowd is into it. I get sad when it’s coming to an end because I may still be in the spirit and want to continue to put smiles on people’s faces and give them the requests that they want. But when it’s coming to an end, it feels like all my energy is gone. Everything is spent when I’m trying to tear everything down, so that’s when it feels like a job sometimes.

You use a tablet computer as part of your setup, but you’ve been in the music scene for longer than tablets have existed. How has technology affected your music over the years, and what would your setup have looked like if you had tried this 10 or 15 years ago?

I was doing music 10 or 15 years ago, definitely. This technology, to me, was unheard of. A lot of bands when I started doing music weren’t using tracks. You had a strings section. You had a trumpet section. Technology has definitely made it a lot easier for me to give it that same effect that the original artist would have given it. 10 years ago, it would have probably still been me trying to put together a band to make it happen. Who wants to hear a guy drumming and singing with no melodic tones behind it? Technology has helped me tremendously with managing songs and organization.

What is the most enjoyable thing your family has done together in the last three years?

We went to New York City and had a great time, got to do a lot of sightseeing. We visited some places that I’ve always wanted to see since I was a kid. I got to see the excitement on my daughter’s face when she saw the lights in Times Square. She’s almost two years old, so she’s still kind of young and can’t understand what’s going on, but she had a great time. It was a great vacation. That’s the biggest thing we’ve done since she’s come about.

So I was there a couple of years ago. One of the most memorable things for me was subway musicians. Did you take the subways? Did you run into that kind of thing?

Yes, I ran into a lot of street musicians and subway musicians. There was a guy who was just singing, and the man had an amazing gift. He had no instrument, but he was down there just singing songs acapella. Everybody was shocked at the gift he had. He was on the subway. I did see a guy on the banks of the waiting area to get on the subway. He had a guitar. He was pretty good—he was a great guitarist. He didn’t have the voice, but he knew a lot of songs. Again, all those things influenced me to actually pursue that, but I wanted to take it to another level. I wanted to give it that live band effect rather than just a single artist or a single instrument being played.

Why do religions that advocate unity divide the human race?

This is just from what I see, as far as religion. People think people are crazy when they do something out of the ordinary that they don’t understand instead of trying to get an understanding of why somebody follows this God or follows this practice. If they don’t understand it, it’s dumb to them. They cast it off and say, “no, they’re crazy,” but the person that’s influenced to follow that practice, there’s a reason why they do that. Rather than learn about this religion, people are pretty much close-minded and stuck to their ways, I think. That’s my opinion.

Do you ever get any hecklers? Does anyone ever try to throw you off while you’re performing?

I don’t know if you want to call it heckling, but there are some attractive women down there. (laughs) The way that they dance, they try to get really close to my performance. They try to draw my attention to them, but it hasn’t thrown me off. That’s why I say I wouldn’t call it heckling. I don’t think that they’re trying to mess me up. I haven’t had any hecklers or anybody throwing anything or booing me. I’ve gotten nothing but love from Oklahoma City.

You probably wouldn’t get that if you were at an arts festival or playing on the canal during the daytime. Have you learned anything about the nightlife down there?

I wouldn’t say I learned about it because I knew what I was going to be expecting. I’ve been playing the club scene and the casinos for many, many years, since I was 13 years old. I’ve never played on the sidewalk, but, basically, the club was on the sidewalk now. Once the club was let out come 12:30, people are trying to go home and they gotta walk past me. They just all seem to migrate to where I’m performing at, and there could be 100 people out there, easily. There could be 100+ people doing the cupid shuffle or doing the wobble. It’s been what I’ve been wanting to do, to stop people in their tracks and get them to feel my groove. I’m making these people dance with my rhythm, and there’s a fulfillment in that.

You played with Aranda in the late 90s? I’m pretty curious to hear what that was like, and since their career has taken off, what has that been like?

Mid-to-late 90s, yeah. When I first started playing with Aranda, they were sneaking me into clubs to play percussion for them. They were like, “hey, he’s with the band,” and I was playing congas and shakers with them at a young age. They really, really inspired me; they took me under their wing and taught me a lot. The love and passion that I saw in the Aranda brothers, it caught my attention. Like, this is what I want to do!

In me staying with that band, I was able to pick up other instruments. From the hand percussion, the first instrument I went to was the drum set. They saw my chops were growing, and they tried me out. I played some shows with them and had a great time. Then there was a time when they were looking for a bass player, and they said, “Hold on, Robert knows all that stuff.” I love music so much that I’ll find an instrument and want to learn it. I started playing bass with them for a while and sang background vocals. For the most part over the years, I played percussion, but when they were in times of need, I was able to fill in. It was a blessing and a learning experience at the same time, playing with musicians of that caliber. I played with them all the way until I was 21 or so.

What happened after that? Did they just move on? Did you move on?

They had gotten signed, and they moved to California to work on an album. They were dealing with a lot of different artists and songwriters out on the west coast. I think their deal fell through to where they weren’t able to release their album with Sony. While they were off in L.A., I started getting a lot of calls in Oklahoma from other artists, and I got busy. When they came back, I was still part of it if I wanted to be part of it. I guess, because of the financial aspect, I was leaning more toward playing with these other groups. You know, my friendship will never die with the Aranda brothers, but I was playing with a lot of other groups as well. So that’s what happened in a nutshell.

So the kind of music I hear you playing as the One Piece Special seems quite different from the kind of music I generally associate with Aranda. What’s it like working with and adapting to different genres?

Well, the Aranda that I grew up with played some of the music that I play. Right now they’re a lot more edgy, a lot heavier. I don’t know if it’s an influence from the record label or what, but when I was playing with them, it was funk. It was Michael Jackson. It was Prince. Yeah, they played a lot of cover tunes. They played Led Zeppelin. They played everything.

You can’t be one-dimensional. I think you have more influence on the people if you’re able to be diverse, to not just be of a one-track mind and cater to one people. That’s my goal, and that’s what they did in their early years. Again, now, if you listen to their album, it’s edgier. They’re great at it, and if that’s what they want to do, it’s beautiful. For me, you gotta adapt. You gotta be ready when someone throws out a request. Can you cover it? If you can’t cover that song, at least something from that era or along the lines of that song.

What’s the last great album or song you heard?

Songs in the Key of Life. I’m a big Stevie Wonder fan. I grew up with this artist in my household, having all his albums and records, my mother and father constantly listening to him. Just, the musician that he is and the players that he played with. He’s been a great influence in my life musically with his melodies and his voice. I love his voice! That’s the last greatest album I heard. It’s actually in my car right now.

[Fortune cookie] Life consists not in holding good cards, but in playing those you hold well.

That is very true. I can see that. It’s not what kind of hand has been dealt to you. What can you do with the hand you’ve been given? Are you playing it well and being wise? That’s a very heavy saying. You can’t complain, you know? There’s people that have a worse hand than you, so you have to be grateful with whatever hand was dealt to you. You gotta be careful and take pride in that hand. Every move is precious.

Takin’ It To The Streets: The Man and the Motivation Behind Bricktown’s “One Piece Special”

Saturdays

8:30 pm-2:00 am

SW corner of Sheridan & Mickey Mantle

Bricktown

https://facebook.com/Theonepiecespecial

Robert Spencer doesn’t just believe in the power of music; he proves it every Saturday night on the streets of Bricktown in Oklahoma City. With a full drum set, a microphone, and a tablet full of backing tracks, he injects a fresh, contagious energy into the atmosphere of an already booming downtown nightlife. At the root of every performance is the passion to connect with people through music.

“When I play music on the sidewalk, I don’t want people to just walk past saying, ‘oh, he sounds pretty good, I’m gonna throw him a dollar,’” Spencer said. “I use it as a tool to make people feel good, to want to stop and actually dance.”

Spencer plays a variety of funk and pop hits from decades past and present to connect with as many passersby as possible. It’s part of his philosophy that music is a way to bring people together across different age groups and nationalities. So far, it’s working.

“Basically, the club is on the sidewalk now,” Spencer said, describing the crowds he draws after the district’s clubs close for the night. “They just all seem to migrate to where I’m performing, and there could be 100 people out there, easily. There could be 100+ people doing the cupid shuffle or doing the wobble. I’ve gotten nothing but love from Oklahoma City.”

Even the police officers have been receptive. Instead of being pestered to prove the legality of his amplified set-up, Spencer has only felt support from the area’s police force. It’s the biggest surprise he has had since becoming a street musician.

Spencer’s one-man-band approach to street performance is only a few months old. After years of repeatedly failing to put together a full band of his own, he devised “The One Piece Special” as a way to capture a live band feel with limited resources. The name, he said, comes from the idea of “3-piece bands, 4-piece bands, a 20-piece orchestra, whatever it may be. I said, I’m gonna try to do this myself. This is something very special, hence ‘The One Piece Special.’”

Street music is a new gig for Robert Spencer, a drummer, bassist, and vocalist who has been a part of the Oklahoma music scene for well over a decade. His tight rhythms and soulful vocals reflect his experience, as he has played with many bands in various formats, catering to clubs, weddings, casinos, and more.

Most notably, Spencer sat in with OKC rockers Aranda in their formative years during the early 2000s. This was before they gravitated to hard rock, covering songs similar to what The One Piece Special plays now. He was a teenager then.

“When I first started playing with Aranda,” Spencer said, “they were sneaking me into clubs to play percussion for them. They took me under their wing and taught me a lot. The love and passion that I saw in the Aranda brothers, it caught my attention. Like, this is what I want to do!”

He mastered the drum set and bass guitar in the midst of great musicians while also covering other instruments when needed. He grew with Aranda until they got signed and moved to L.A., at which point he became busy locally with a new abundance of gig offers. They grew apart professionally, but “my friendship will never die with the Aranda brothers,” he said.

Although Spencer has since made a secondary career from his music, something he pursues outside of his time as a crane operator, playing predictable paid gigs with built-in audiences didn’t meet his ambitions. He wanted to introduce “the element of shock, of culture, of bringing something new to Oklahoma City that you would find in other cities like New York City, New Orleans, and Austin,” he said. “I’ve gotten a lot of opportunity from Oklahoma to make a living doing music, doing what I love. I wanted to give something back.”

The One Piece Special is indeed unlike anything else in the downtown nightlife scene right now. By bringing his act to the streets, Robert Spencer has built a unique rapport with the people of Bricktown. Touching people through song in this unexpected way has been a rewarding experience for him, especially when it results in primal, physical expression.

“When people dance, it’s because they’re in a good spirit. You don’t dance because you’re sad. You don’t dance because you’re pissed off. I love seeing people just dance randomly with each other. Complete strangers dance with each other because the music spoke to them, and they heard the same thing.”

————————————————-

In the full, experimental interview this article was derived from—which you can read here—Robert Spencer also discusses the unique distractions he encounters while playing on the sidewalk, drawing inspiration from other cultural mainstays like New York City, and the necessity of technology to his act.

The interview uses a choose-your-own-destiny structure designed to empower the subjects interviewed as well as broaden the topics discussed. The hope is that this will take the conversation into places it wouldn’t otherwise go and bring about new angles to a familiar medium.

THIS WEEK IN OKIE-ISMS: I’M FINE.

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The Haunting of Johnnie’s Charcoal Broiler

(This is the first part of a series of stories reprinted with permission from Jeff Provine anthology of true ghost stories, From Haunted Norman, Oklahoma. You can buy the full collection at http://www.amazon.com/Haunted-Norman-Oklahoma-America/dp/1626195633)

It’s an unassuming corner of Main Street heading west toward I-35, an area well known for its restaurants. The street has its share of pizza places, taco places, chicken places, and the more exotic Mediterranean or Asian cuisine, but none of them exude more down-home flair than the burger joints. But Main and Berry’s first formal designation was as Norman’s town cemetery.

The graveyard was established in 1889, shortly after the Land Run. Along with water and postal service, it was a universal civic need. Older settlers and those who met their end tragically young were buried simply, often in graveside services since few churches had yet been erected. Many deceased did not even receive markers, just plain wooden crosses that were soon removed and reused.

After a population explosion, it was clear that the land was needed by the living more than by the dead. By government order in 1890, the bodies were disinterred, and the graves were moved, reburied in new cemeteries established as the town gained its footing. Small communities outside of town absorbed some of the reburied bodies, such as the Denver Corner graveyard started in 1891.

The corner soon developed. When I-35 was established in the 1950s, it became a significant thoroughfare between the new highway and downtown. Sooner Dairy Lunch opened in 1954 among a wave of restaurants popping up to feed hungry motorists. Customers did not even have to get out of their cars: they simply pulled up and called in their orders in the height of Atomic Age fashion.

In 2004, the corner became home to a Johnnie’s. The restaurant chain is named for Johnnie Haynes, a Californian who came to Oklahoma to continue his career in the food industry at the Sky Chefs in Will Rogers World Airport. He moved on to manage Oklahoma City’s famous Split-T restaurant for 18 years and then ventured out on his own with the first Johnnie’s in 1971. The diner served to fill a nostalgic gap as carhops gave way to drive-thrus, but Haynes kept his drive-in stalls to maintain the sense of a simpler bygone time. Tasty Americana food and multiple styles of delivery was a winning formula, and Johnnie’s has since expanded throughout the metro area.

During the remodel at the Berry and Main location, it was noted that the land had once been a cemetery. Old memories were dredged up from long-time residents. Not all of the bodies had been marked, so how could one possibly be sure that they had all been moved? Still, construction went on to completion despite superstitious ideas of waking the resting dead. Mayor Harold Haralson commemorated the site with a plaque “to these pioneering souls,” but it apparently did not placate the spirits.

It was soon evident to workers that something about the restaurant was not normal. Even before they knew about the first cemetery, strange things kept happening. Blenders, fryers, and even the stoves would turn themselves on. Boxes fell off shelves even when they were set back away from the edge. Workers had to go around constantly turning off a register that had suddenly started up or clean up a mess no one had made.

An older customer stopped by to mention the history of the plot, remembering back to the days it was a gas station. Even then, he recalled, strange things happened. He then told them about the cemetery and cynically assured them, “They didn’t move all those graves.”

The most famous ghost appears as someone walking into the freezer. Descriptions of the ghost are vague, something one might see out of the corner of an eye, but clearly a person. It walks through the kitchen a short ways and then opens the freezer door to slip inside. Time and again, managers had gone in after what they assumed was a customer who slipped past the “Employees Only” sign. Despite seeing someone enter and hearing the freezer door slam, no one was inside. Other times, people entered the freezer and sensed someone there, like a glimmer that disappears when they try to look for it.

The ghost in the freezer wasn’t the only one present. Late one night, after all of the customers had cleared out, a few employees were closing. There was no rush, so they hung out at the counter chatting about this and that.

Suddenly, out of the empty seating area, a lady’s voice called out, “Would you be quiet?”

The employees froze. Their eyes scanned the tables and booths. No one was there.

The voice returned to explain, “I’m trying to sleep.”

Before it could say anything else, they rushed through closing and went home.

Let’s Make Comics @ H & 8th and Apothecary Nights!

Gonna be a busy weekend for Literati as we are hosting a Let’s Make Comics on two consecutive nights.

First, we go to H & 8th on Friday night, starting at 6 pm. We will be featuring the most charming man in the Greater OKC Metro area, Mr. Jerry Bennett. Look for us out front of Elemental Coffee next to the Short Order Poets.

Then, we go to Apothecary Nights in downtown Guthrie. starting about  6 pm as well.

Both events are free and all artists, whether young and old or pro and shamefully amateur are welcome.

 

Preorder Heathen 3!!!

Presale is now live for issue 3 of the viking tale beloved by critics and audiences alike. To be honest, we are a little intimidated by how popular it has become.

“Absolutely phenomenal art…” – KARA SZAMBORSKI, THE COMIXOLOGIST

“Amazing … Powerful, grounded fantasy with a feminist angle.” – JOSHUA HALE FIALKOV, ELK’S RUN, THE BUNKER AND TUMOR

“I want to see more comics with these characters … I want to see ar tist Natasha Alterici drawing more comics … Highly recommended.” – COVERLESS REVIEWS

“The art flows viscerally from panel to panel in defiance, the lines are so dynamic that the page can barely contain them …” – KATE REYNOLDS, FEMINISM/GEEKERY

“Natasha has a beautiful artistic style. She brings a level of subtlety to the medium that draws a person into it.” – GEEK THE NEWS

“… badass heroines and great use of mythology gave this [comic] that extra oomph.”

-BRIE TART, CAE STUDIOS

At any rate, Natasha Alterici will be debuting issue 3 at New York Comic Con at the ComiXology booth, but you can get your very own signed copy if you pre-order by October 7.

Communion, Brunch, and Publishing=Literati Presents: Season 1

Literati Presents represents the future of our publishing company, the standard we are working to meet. Not just a group effort or a hodgepodge of styles and methods, but peers that are both too old and too young to be doing this sort of thing. If I may venture a little too close to absurdity, we are a group of silly truth-seekers.

Yeah, I think that’s it. Truth-seekers at a time that the last thing we should be seeking is the truth. It is not like when we were young and flush with that special kind of poverty, that privileged poverty where you live like the poor, but with the assurance that family and friends will pull you out of any tight squeeze. Back then, seeking the truth was what we got off on. It’s what’s sexy to other, artsy, poor-not-poor, truth-seekers as we smoked cheap cigarettes and talked about art and life and love and religion on scales way grander than what we’d personally experienced.

Later, we will become old and seek the truth in a new way. A panicked way. A distrusting our offsprings’ ability to take over the world kind of way. We will seek the truth so that we can instruct everyone else younger and dumber than us on the truth and, goddamnit, why can’t they just shut up and keep doing it our way? It’s worked pretty well thus far, so why change now?

But we’re in-between those eras.  Many of us have kids, but even those that do not have also built a perch upon their section of the world that they consider important and want to protect. We have finally taken ownership and responsibility for our lives and we should not be creating art, but fretting over a distant retirement, over looming mortgages and lingering student loans. College savings plans, car payments, career advancements, these are important things and I say that without a shred of sarcasm. And here we are, this silly group of silly truth-seekers putting out this anthology because we believe it is important to a world that will largely not even notice it.

But that is not really what Literati Presents is about. We don’t publish because we believe we’ve finally tracked down the answers, leapt upon them, and wrestled them into submission. We publish for the same reason I host brunch at my house, which is the same reason churches hold communion. It is not about the wine and cheap crackers, it is about what the gathering achieves. Building upon our collective perch.

I am not a young man anymore with an over-sized assumption on how I can force change on this world, nor am I yet an old man fearing his loss of relevance as his child scoots him over into the passenger seat as he assumes the steering wheel. I know that Literati Presents is small. Its impact on this world is small. But that does not make it unimportant. Literati Presents is our growing family of artists and writers taking communion, a ceremony of truth-seeking that is significant only because we have decided it is significant. Storytellers telling stories improves our community. This is a matter of faith and the fruits of that faith may never yield the financial success to put our children through college, but it may help build a creative culture that can help those children find their way should they follow us into the family business. And if not our children, perhaps someone else’s.

So, with five issues down and an infinity to go, Literati Presents remains important to us and who we want to be as a publishing company. More than that, it is quite good. I am proud to my core of the stories we’ve assembled and the wider community that have shown their support the efforts of a scattered flock of truth-seekers that can never quite be herded because we are too busy exploring the brush or gazing upon the stars.

With no further ado, PRESALES ARE NOW LIVE.