Chris Amandier

history

Castle Billboard (Haunted Bannerman Castle Part 5)

This is part of a blog series about haunted Bannerman Castle. Check out part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4 of the series. Building the castle In true eccentric-rich-guy-style, Bannerman ordered that his private-island munitions warehouse resemble a Scottish castle. He drew up the ornate designs himself. Most

history

Pollepel Island (Haunted Bannerman Castle Part 4)

This is part of a blog series about haunted Bannerman Castle. Check out part 1, part 2, and part 3 of the series. Located in the Hudson River near the town of Fishkill, Pollepel Island is a 6.5 acre, uninhabited, rocky island. It sits near the eastern bank of

history

Haunted Bannerman Castle Part 3

This is part of a blog series about haunted Bannerman Castle. Check out part 1 and part 2 of the series. What do you do when your military surplus business has vast quantities of explosives and arms? If your name is Francis Bannerman VI, you build a castle to put

history

The arms dealer and his castle (Haunted Bannerman Castle Part 2)

This is part of a blog series about haunted Bannerman Castle. Check out part 1 of the series here. Last time, I posted a quick intro about the ruins of an odd, old castle in Upstate New York. Well, an eccentric castle needs an eccentric creator, so let's look at

Learning Things

Is it fall yet? (Learning Things: September 18, 2023)

I don't have much to say on my weekly update this time--I'm happy that it's starting to feel slightly autumnal here in New York, though things are starting to get busy in that way that they are in the fall. Pros and cons, I guess. Anyway, read to the end

history

Haunted Bannerman Castle (Part 1)

About 50 miles away from Manhattan, the ruins of a castle lie on a small island in the Hudson River. Travelers pass the ruins on the train, and the only clue to the history of the destroyed castle are the words “Bannerman’s Island Arsenal,” emblazoned on the side of

link roundup

Do I listen to too many remixes? (Link Roundup: September 2023)

It's been a bit since I last did a link roundup, so I wanted to share some media I've been enjoying lately. This time, the unintentional theme is both cyberpunk and solarpunk. And things are weighted heavily in the direction of electronic song remixes and books about tech, but that's

EMF series

What do K2 meters detect? (EMF meters and ghost hunting)

Last time, I wrote about the basics of EMFs: high versus low and medium-frequency EMFs, etc. Check that out if you haven't already, because I'll be building on that today. While doing that research, I found myself wondering what frequencies popular EMF meters detect, since even visible light is an

emf

What are EMFs? (EMFs and the paranormal)

As part of my quest to learn more about what EMFs are and why EMF meters are used so much in ghost hunting, I'm starting at the very beginning: What are EMFs (electromagnetic fields)? To answer this question, I'll be trying to rely mostly on .gov websites[^1] and well-vetted

Learning Things

Reading Keel again (Learning Things: September 11, 2023)

Here's a quick update on what I've been up to lately: Paranormal research I took a bit of a break from Keel's stuff after reading Operation Trojan Horse earlier this year, but I've been reading Strange Creatures from Time and Space by John Keel, which I'm enjoying. I just finished

emf

Are EMF meters BS? (researching EMFs and the paranormal)

Listen, I've had a real bee in my bonnet about EMFs, or electromagnetic fields, lately (read: the last 6 months or so). Like a lot of "scientific" paranormal investigation metrics, EMFs get talked about an awful lot. And while I wouldn't say that I "did" "well" in high school physics

synchronicity

Synchronicity and the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon

The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, also known as frequency bias, or frequency illusion, describes the experience of noticing something and then suddenly seeing that thing everywhere. It's a cognitive bias, because the thing that changed is all in your mind: you see something more frequently because you're suddenly tuned in to it

movies

I don't watch many movies but I should watch these

I used to watch, like, a lot of movies. For a good six years or so, I watched movies somewhat compulsively (there was one summer when I watched 2-4 films every night--I had a short commute and most of my friends were out of town, so I had a lot

games

Apocalyptic comfort in liminal spaces (a casual Cloud Gardens game review)

I'm not much of a gamer, but I always have an eye out for chill city-builders, and bonus points if they have a solarpunk vibe. My current favorite game is Terra Nil, a reverse city-builder that came out earlier this year. In it, you restore ecosystems, turning wastelands into beautiful

Blog

Tech talismans and commonplace nostalgia

Last time, I wrote about my fascination with a late 2000s "what's in my bag" photograph I stumbled across on Pinterest. The everyday objects that a stranger carried around made me feel such a strong sense of nostalgia that I ended up scouring Pinterest for more images of the contents

Blog

The Aesthetics of Commonplace Nostalgia

A set of everyday objects sprawl on a slab of cardboard, surrounded by a moat of beige carpet: a yellow iPod Nano slung atop an iPod Classic; the two-tone purple disc of a Advair inhaler; a faded mass market paperback of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; a phone with

Learning Things

I'm back!

Hello hello, I'm back from vacation, which in this case means an actual trip but also a month or so of particularly sticky depression. Anyway, a couple weeks ago I found myself taking notes on the book I was reading and I realized that my brain seems to be forming,

Learning Things

Listenin' for bats (Learning Things: July 24, 2023)

I hope everyone's getting through the dog days of summer alright. Hey, you know something that I learned last week? Apparently the phrase "dog days of summer" has astrological roots and is a reference to Sirius, the dog star. Who knew? Not me. I'm going to be doing some travel

hoax

Victorian Ghost Hoaxers: Part 4

Note: This post contains mentions of physical attacks, vigilantism, mental asylums. In the last post, I wrote about some of the men who dressed up as ghosts in 19th century Australia in order to commit crimes. But women did it too, albeit more often for crimes that you might describe

Blog

Victorian Ghost Hoaxers: Part 3

Note: this post contains mention of sexual assault, vigilantism, poisoning, mental asylums, cancer, and injury/illness. Late nineteenth century ghost hoaxing, or "playing the ghost," became so common that it happened several times per week in Ballarat, Australia, during its height. It seemed that dressing up as a ghost became

hoax

Victorian Ghost Hoaxers: Part 2

Note: This contains mentions of colonialism and people being attacked. Dr. David Waldron, a folklorist and historian at Federation University in Ballarat, Australia, is an expert in the subject of Victorian ghost hoaxers. In his paper "Playing the Ghost," he talks about the disaster of colonialism in Australia, as well

victorian

Victorian Ghost Hoaxers: Part 1

Note: This contains mentions of vigilantism and angry mobs. Did you know that in late 19th century Australia, ordinary people would dip sheets in toxic glowing paint and run around at night pretending to be ghosts? I dug up this oddball story way back in 2020, and my then-cohost and

Blog

Low-effort Link Roundup (July 17, 2023)

On Mondays, I usually give updates on various projects that I'm working on, but it's been a week and I don't have much interesting to say about 'em. I've been doing a lot of writing and I dropped an episode of the podcast about stories of the pigman in Denton,

Episodes

The Pigman of Bonnie Brae Bridge (Haunted Denton, Texas)

This is the written version of an episode of Buried Secrets Podcast, which you can also listen to on your favorite podcatcher. This episode is about the legendary pigman of Denton, Texas. Kinda. The thing is, I'd never heard of the pigman, so it's really an episode about how urban

UFO

Hallucinatory Men in Black

Today's post is just a tiny little nugget that didn't quite gel with yesterday's post about Hallucinatory UFOs and sound, but which I found interesting and wanted to put a pin in. Men in Black and sleep paralysis In the same issue of John Keel's Anomaly newsletter, Anomaly issue 1,