Getting paranormal at Caribou Coffee

I just noticed a sign on the door behind my perch at a picnic table outside the Caribou Coffee on East Blvd. "Tonight outside at 7pm :)" reads the hand-written note on a piece of paper taped to the glass. The letterhead: the Charlotte Paranormal Meetup Group (a combination of believers and investigators).

Sure enough, just in front of me, about 15 people are finishing up what must have been an incredibly long gathering for what seems like such an off-the-wall topic. They all look normal enough, at least for the Caribou Coffee crowd. Surprisingly, though, they're almost all middle aged. I don't know what I was expecting, but regular potential moms and dads it was not.

I'm going to have to check this out. A woman just stood up to announce the end of the meeting. She must be the leader. Take me to your leader...

The leader: Ambur Rose. Ambur is a clairvoyant. Does that mean she talks to ghosts?

Well, first of all, we shouldn't get too caught up in how the media defines ghosts. Ghost means different things to different people. Someone who was raised Catholic might think possession and exorcism. A pagan or Wicca, on the other hand, might think entity to communicate with.

On top of that, we all have the intuition to know when someone's about to knock on the door, or get a chill up our spines when we just know something is wrong. It's just a matter of honing those skills, and looking into the feelings and what's causing them.

So Ambur has honed it. She's trained in psychometry. You know that sensation you get when you pick up an old memento--teddy bear, picture, postcard? The memories that wash over and seem to transport you to another time and place? Ambur might get it from walking through a (haunted) house. She could be feeling the wall and get suddenly struck by a feeling, sound, or image.

In other words, a family who thinks their house is haunted will give her a call and ask her to tell them what's been happening and why.

"Once they see a scary movie or two, they think they're going to wind up with Carrie in their house, or being thrown across the room," Ambur tells me. "What the media shows you is far, far different from what really happens in this world. They need assurance that something like that is not going to happen."

But on a full-scale investigation, Ambur is only one part of the team. There are also lots of people with gadgets. To explain that side of things, Ambur walks back into the crowd and brings me Tina McSwain, the founder and president of the Charlotte Area Paranormal Society (CAPS).

Homes and businesses can be haunted, especially if there was once a death on the premises (battlefields are almost always haunted). If a client thinks his home or business (or battlefield) is haunted, he'll make the call.

Maybe he's hearing strange noises: bumps, knocks, voices. He could feel unusual hot or cold spots, or see something that he just can't explain, like a mist cloud or flickering ball of light. Sometimes, things in the house even move on their own--dishes or cookie jars slide across the counter and smash onto the floor.

First a few members of the team conduct an interview with the potential client in person, usually after work (all ghost hunters have day jobs; investigations are free of charge). They get a feel for his character. Is he trying to pull a fast one? Does he have an overactive imagination? Is there a pattern to what he's been experiencing? Did someone die in his house recently?

If they think it's legit, the full team will head over on a Friday or Saturday night, say around 8 (they might stay until 4 or 5 am). Instruments include, but are not limited to, Electromagnetic Field Detectors, night vision goggles, thermal imaging cameras, digital voice recorders, digital cameras, a compass.

The first order of business, according to Jason Porter, a member of the Atlantic Paranormal Society (the group that's featured on the TV show "Ghost Hunters") who's moving to Charlotte and considering starting his own team here, is proving that there aren't any ghosts.

"The term we use is debunk," he says. "And we try to debunk all the claims first. Like if a door is opening by itself, we check to see if it's level."

Faulty electrical wiring could cause lights to flicker. Iron deposits under a house might cause weird magnetic spots. Short circuits can make people feel like they're being watched.

But lots of places also have ghosts hanging around.

Unexplained hot and cold spots in a room might give one away.

"One theory is that when a spirit is around it needs energy to manifest or move things," McSwain says. "They'll take energy out of the air, thereby creating a cold spot. I mean, it's a theory, you know?"

The best results often come with a digital voice recorder, which can pick up otherwise undetectable voices. McSwain usually asks if there's a ghost in the room with something to say. Or the ghost might just speak up on its own.

McSwain remembers an investigation during which the clairvoyant asked her to come into a room, because she felt the presence of a little girl. McSwain said she would, but worried out loud that she'd scare the little girl away. Hours later, upon reviewing the tape, a little girl's voice could be heard: "You didn't scare me."

Once the client found out it was just a child-ghost, she was no longer afraid.

This would never happen at Starbucks.

The meetup group meets at 7 pm on the last Friday of every month. You can follow CAPS exploits at Ghost GRRLS.

**a few mistakes in the original post have been corrected

The Big Dog checks out Chris Rock

Another guest review from the Ballantyne Big Dog (read his last posts here and here).

In 1996, Chris Rock became a comedic icon when he premiered "Bring the Pain." The special, in which he riffed on subjects from media to racism, propelled him to superstardom.

And although he's made millions in movies and TV, stand-up is where his roots are at. Twelve years after "Bring the Pain," Rock showed he's still on top of the comedy world with his "No Apologies" tour, which made a stop in Charlotte on Thursday night.

Now, I've seen all of Rock's TV specials. Have them on DVR, and they never get old, along with Dave Chappelle's "Killing 'Em Softly." But nothing compares to seeing Rock live. He has a set routine, but ad-libs better than anyone else, like when he talked about being from South Carolina.

"But ya'll are in North Carolina, the future," Rock said. "There are still some 'colored' signs that have been left hanging up in South Carolina."

Gay marriage, straight marriage, Britney Spears ... as usual, nothing was off limits, ringing true to his tour name. But, the biggest roars from the crowd came during Rock's comments on the presidential election.

If I may channel Rock for a moment: Being able to do stand-up comedy during an election year is like being Brad Pitt at a sex addicts anonymous meeting. You really can do no wrong.

Rock went through all the candidates.

John McCain: "Everybody likes him because he's a war hero. Yeah, but he's a war hero who got CAPTURED. There are plenty of people in prison who have been captured."

Hillary Clinton: "When the Celtics beat the Lakers, the Lakers didn't stay on the court for another week. They left!"

And, of course, Barack Obama, who Rock supports. That didn't stop Rock from talking about him.

He mentioned Rev. Jeremiah Wright ("A 75-year-old black man who doesn't like white people ... is there any other kind of 75-year-old black man?) and Michelle Obama (Barack is going to have to get him a white woman, because a black woman can't be the first lady. 'Hey, honey, I won the presidency.' 'Uh-uh, WE won.')

Now that I've gotten my fill of the new material, I can get back to my couch and DVR.

More bad news on the banking front

From the cover story of today's Observer.

Inside the changing world of i-bankers

My latest article for the magazine discusses how the financial crisis has affected the rich, cocky young professionals who might be the standard-bearers for Yup-Town.

Here it is.

More people are choosing cities

According to this story in today's New York Times, energy prices are pushing people from suburbs to cities across the country:

"Across the nation, the realization is taking hold that rising energy prices are less a momentary blip than a change with lasting consequences. The shift to costlier fuel is threatening to slow the decades-old migration away from cities, while exacerbating the housing downturn by diminishing the appeal of larger homes set far from urban jobs."

The article is well worth a read.

The Cage Bully

When the buttoned-up bars and clubs of Yup-Town are getting me down, I make for the Breakfast Club. A couple of blocks and a world (or at least a few decades) away from Trade and Tryon, it's a square and cement-walled oasis of debauchery smack dab in the center of a parking lot.

The $7 cover is often negotiable. On Friday nights, bottles of domestic beer are $1. The chairs downstairs are shaped like hands. Up top, a disco Rubik's Cube hangs from the ceiling. The movie that provides the bar's namesake, along with everything from 80's dance videos and wrestling matches to "Fraggle Rock" and "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo," are projected on the walls above a dance floor that's packed with all kinds of people.

And these people are always dancing. Sometimes, even break dancing, but usually just grinding and getting ridiculous to the music. The atmosphere is relaxed and fun and very drunk.

Except, surprisingly enough, in the elevated cage in the corner of the dance floor. In the past, that tiny, difficult-to-reach cage has been home to rotating shifts of the drunkest, most hysterical women in the club, who make the precarious, ten-foot climb up the ladder along the side to spend a couple of songs in the spotlight.

Recently, though, that cage has been taken over in force. By a bully. A cage bully.

The cage bully is built like an offensive guard. She wears intimidating boots and black attire. She doesn't drink. Instead, she commandeers the cage for about twenty minutes at a time, dancing in a manner that can best be described as violent and angry. When she gets tired, she makes a slow and wobbly climb back down the ladder, then waits right there in the corner until she's ready to go again.

Aside from keeping most of the other women away from the cage, the cage bully also acts as the resident enforcer of the cage's only rule: No men allowed. On a recent Friday night, I decided to test her. First, I tried to woo her with kindness, climbing up and poking my head into the cage while she was going through her routine to politely asking if I could join. She gave me a firm denial, referring me to the "women only" sign. Then, when I tried to pull myself up anyway, she gave me a firm boot in the shoulder and turned around and blocked off the entrance.

I retreated to the dance floor and waited for her to come down. Fifteen minutes later, she was back at her post at the base of the cage. When she turned to talk to someone, I made a break for it. I was two rungs up when I felt her enormous hand grab the back of my shirt and yank me back to the ground. I tried another lunge for the ladder, but she jumped in front of it, and could not be convinced or bribed to move.

Eventually, she climbed back into the cage, where she danced defiantly for the rest of the night.

If you have any information concerning the cage bully, or how to stop her, please contact Yup-Town immediately.

A photo from the good old days: