As the haunting notes of Nirvana's "Come as You Are" still echo in the hearts of many, we traverse the poignant landscape of Kurt Cobain's enduring influence, marking three decades since his untimely departure. The grunge movement, birthed in the Pacific Northwest, served as a canvas for Cobain's raw and uncensored portrayal of a generation's angst and desires, resonating deeply with my own journey through those transformative years. We invite you to join us in a collective reflection, sharing tales of how a single chord can be a call to arms, a solace in solitude, and a bridge connecting disparate souls.
Wander with me through the hallowed grounds of Disneyland, as we uncover the spectral whispers that animate the corners of the Happiest Place on Earth. Be it Walt Disney's lingering presence or the Haunted Mansion's otherworldly inhabitants, these tales are a testament to the park's ability to enchant us in the most unexpected ways. Your stories of ghostly encounters and camping escapades further illuminate the tapestry woven from the threads of joy, adventure, and mystery that accompany every visit to Disneyland or a night under the stars.
As we draw the curtains on this episode, we embrace the emotional candor of Frances Bean Cobain, whose words offer a window into the bittersweet symphony of growing up in the shadow of a legend. With an eye towards the horizon, we tease the unveiling of new collaborations and a dive into Bigfoot conference archives that promise to unlock fresh curiosities. From the enigmatic to the existential, these conversations are an ode to the seekers, the dreamers, and the storytellers who find solace in the skies and the stories etched into our collective consciousness.
Elevate the Extraordinary: Support U.S. Phenomenon!
As the haunting notes of Nirvana's "Come as You Are" still echo in the hearts of many, we traverse the poignant landscape of Kurt Cobain's enduring influence, marking three decades since his untimely departure. The grunge movement, birthed in the Pacific Northwest, served as a canvas for Cobain's raw and uncensored portrayal of a generation's angst and desires, resonating deeply with my own journey through those transformative years. We invite you to join us in a collective reflection, sharing tales of how a single chord can be a call to arms, a solace in solitude, and a bridge connecting disparate souls.
Wander with me through the hallowed grounds of Disneyland, as we uncover the spectral whispers that animate the corners of the Happiest Place on Earth. Be it Walt Disney's lingering presence or the Haunted Mansion's otherworldly inhabitants, these tales are a testament to the park's ability to enchant us in the most unexpected ways. Your stories of ghostly encounters and camping escapades further illuminate the tapestry woven from the threads of joy, adventure, and mystery that accompany every visit to Disneyland or a night under the stars.
As we draw the curtains on this episode, we embrace the emotional candor of Frances Bean Cobain, whose words offer a window into the bittersweet symphony of growing up in the shadow of a legend. With an eye towards the horizon, we tease the unveiling of new collaborations and a dive into Bigfoot conference archives that promise to unlock fresh curiosities. From the enigmatic to the existential, these conversations are an ode to the seekers, the dreamers, and the storytellers who find solace in the skies and the stories etched into our collective consciousness.
Elevate the Extraordinary: Support U.S. Phenomenon!
Welcome to US Phenomenon, where possibilities are endless. Put down those same old headlines. It's time to expand your mind and question what if? From paranormal activity to UFOs, bigfoot sightings and unsolved mysteries, this is US Phenomenon?
Speaker 2:It all began on a drive home from swing shift. The radio, my only companion, the voice of the legendary art bell, filled the car, a beacon in the darkness, speaking of worlds beyond our, beyond our own, of stories, untold secrets, kept just out of sight, that those tales ignited a spark within me, a drive to seek the truth, to explore the phenomenon that lied just beyond the edge of reason, from the whispers of the paranormal to the echoes of the unknown. My quest began. The paranormal to the echoes of the unknown my quest began. So, fellow night travelers, as we continue the journey, let's delve into the enigma of the nights and uncover the mysteries that wait, await us. This is us phenomenon, where the answers never end and the adventures are just beginning.
Speaker 2:I'd like to welcome you all of our YouTube listeners, facebook watchers and Twitch viewers. Thank you so much for hanging out with us. This evening we're going to talk about the 30th anniversary of Kurt Cobain's passing. This was huge to me for many reasons. I mean, it's been three decades. The world has lost probably the hugest icon since, like the Beatles, since, like John Lennon I mean his birthday, birthday. The anniversary had just passed. Maybe you want to chime in and you want to share something about that April 5th from 1994. Where were you? I'd love to hear from you tonight. 775-990-5151 is our text line if you're watching via one of our youtube, facebook or twitch. If you're watching on one of those avenues, we'd love to hear from you as well. Uh, you can leave us a comment on our chat window there. We'd love love to hear from you.
Speaker 2:It's interesting to me because when I go back and look when I was that young I was not a big, I was kind of like I dabbled in the array of that music. I was more of a hip hop 90s kid listening to like the TLCs, the MC Hammers, more of the pop culture then, and I think it was the you know, growing up in the 80s and early 90s, you know our parents still were controlling the radio, right, I mean, at least mine was. So there was that influence beatles. You know, some of those old rolling stone records being, you know, ingrained into our memory banks. Um, yeah, so much time that I remember like it was yesterday.
Speaker 2:I remember this time life was so much different here in the Pacific Northwest, a quieter town. It was different. The Seattle, uh, the Seattle Center had the flag pavilion at that time where I remember everyone going to hang out with Kurt or the spirit of the passing of Kurt Cobain. I remember everyone going down there to hang out, lots of people just in mourning. It seemed like a cold April 5th, like that week, that time period where everyone gathered to memorialize, to commemorate this individual that we all lost. It was our best friend.
Speaker 2:We're talking about an icon who has, in 30 years since his passing, has still leaving a mark, an impression on many lives. Leaving a mark and an impression on many lives. Just the fact that even my daughter knows these Nirvana songs. Other kids of the younger generation are having that opportunity to continue to grow up with that music, with that music and Kurt being such a trendsetter of being a open communicator within his own lyrics and I know there's so much within his lyrics that were like well, I just took simple poetry and did X, y and Z with it, or I was just super sloppy and lazy the beauty of these stories that are now being used and if we go back and you listen to the kurt cobain's of the world and and you, you take that opportunity. And even my daughter said when we were listening to his record one time she goes, his music doesn't make any sense. And then in a past interview he had said some of it was because he just wrote gibberish and he was super lazy and the music you know from was just, he said quick, just boom, just with it, just quick with it to be able to produce these different songs. And what's interesting to me, when you go back and you listen to these different interviews with Kurt Cobain, there are times where you're like wow, really it was just a simple poetry that you took. And then the difference you know, and then just wrote it and then boom, we interpreted it way differently. You know I did. I know I did going back to listen to some of these albums and taking the time to commemorate Kurt and being a music person in general, I just love music. I loved having the opportunity, even on long drives, to listen to Nirvana in. In general, I didn't have that opportunity.
Speaker 2:Maybe you did, growing up in the pacific northwest or maybe you, wherever your town might be, that you were a part of a movement, the grunge movement for the pacific northwest, and then it expanded, you know where. It became mainstream pop culture, which it just is in itself crazy, because it was like you're fighting with a whole, like no, those kids don't hang out with us where it became cool to be a part of something like that. The movement here in the Pacific Northwest this town being just a Boeing town and just Weyerhaeuser and Boeing were like the big two blue-collared industrial places where most people worked around here and there were some other stuff around, but those were the big ones. And going back, my dad retiring from the company Boeing, listening to others talk about how this town was so much smaller and people like the northwest had to create its own entertainment because it was like you were going to Antarctica. You were going to antarctica, you were going to like alaska in the pacific northwest and between your gig in la and driving all the way up to seattle and not knowing if you were going to have enough people to show up at your gigs, created this movement within within the genre of grunge to become its own thing here in the pacific northwest. Think about that. They had to go to these smaller venues, the college radio stations of the day, former kgrg still out there but not playing the the grunge anymore. Back then they were doing like a Today's Rock and playing up-and-coming bands and having these local bands come either to the student centers at like a Green River Community College, where Nirvana actually played at the benefit show at the college, at a benefit show at the college. The LSC should definitely take a piece out of that stage and say this is where Kurt Cobain and Nirvana performed. But how many bands from the Pacific Northwest would go to these different college radio stations around here to promote their shows, their gigs?
Speaker 2:It was a different time back then. So much smaller world. I mean you go back and you think about it and there's just not a lot. Not a lot was going on here. It was a very, very small town and for me I missed that movement. I didn't have an opportunity growing up in like Des Moines, kent Federal Way area this I was a suburbs kid. I didn't have that opportunity to hang out and go to different shows and be a part of that movement. Much too young for myself, to my world was too small back then. There were no media right, there was no social media, so I didn't have an opportunity to and I didn't listen to anything but one radio station that no longer exists in this town. You know the 93.3 cube 93 was the big radio station and during that time, when the passing of Kurt Cobain happened, the station had to change. Even the radio station was having to play grunge music. Why? Because it was such a huge movement, surpassing pop culture and top 40 music, that they had to play the songs. They were going to get smoked out by the other competing radio stations.
Speaker 2:I go back and I listen and I you know that that album, unplugged, came out just after the passing of kurt cobain and to me that's probably one of my favorite albums, just to hear the sheer gift of the band itself to be able to go raw, to be unplugged. And if you have never had an opportunity to listen to Unplugged by Nirvana, go take a listen. It is fantastic. Just every song has a story to be told. You have such incredible cameos from different the meat puppets and different group people came in and they had a cello player and they just really moved around, very diverse and even going through the album itself and hearing them do different covers of different bands of David Bowie, the man who Sold the World that one is my favorite. We'll play that today as we exit out of the show. But yeah, that was one of my favorite songs the man who Sold the World. One of them, and then another one, a song by the Lead Belly, by Lead Bellies, where Did you Sleep Last Night? Just the sheer rawness of kurt's voice.
Speaker 2:But what's interesting to me, going back and setting all that stuff aside the talented gift of kurt cobain as a person, as a human being it's unfortunate that we go back and we look yeah, he, yes, we know that he had a drug addiction issue, which is super unfortunate because nowadays those things typically can be worked out, and I know that he, we know that the story is told, that he was able, was getting seeking treatment and had left a treatment facility and came back home, led to his death. And here we are doing a radio show and a podcast about the passing of kurt cobain. The lasting impressions that this individual has left on this planet itself is on levels of, like I said, a john lennon of a beatles, but the band being so like blowing up fast and the star dying out. It still is here in existence, right? I mean having that opportunity to listen these records and albums and and MP3 streams and however you want to look at that. But how important it is 30 years to look back at this. I mean, he was and he inspired a generation of listeners of anti-rock and he inspired a generation of listeners of anti-rock.
Speaker 2:You know that movement of like you go back and you look at the 80s, the late 80s, and it was like you know all these different songs that were objectifying women and things of that nature, and that was one thing. That was what was special about Kurt. He was able to make these references and people were thinking that he was degrading individuals, but that wasn't the case. That's not what he was doing in these albums. You've got to go back and, lyrically, look at the Rape Me and how they changed these individual lyrics so that they could be in a walmart uh store and those, those lyrics have nothing to do with the action of that. It talks about it, it goes through that and if you will have to post some links about it, um, but yeah, there was a lot of hidden messages within these different albums and we're not talking like beatles, hidden messages where we're talking about like you play the record backwards, you're gonna hear something, you might. I don't know that I ever have. I don't think I ever have spent the time to go back through that and think about that too, as I mean there's no, I don't, I haven't seen anything in the last 30 years that would say that but these messages were just told within the lyrics. You know, there's no hidden message, it was just with reading between the lines is really what Kurt's motive was back in those days. You know, I mean you can talk to a generation right now and they would say, yeah, we'd love Kurt Cobain, we'd love Nirvana.
Speaker 2:Because of these messages of you know, of these different stereotypes that even Kurt Cobain had been going through during his high school years. You know, being an outcast and being called gay, and he was like I'm not gay because he hung out with a gay guy. He wasn't gay, he just was inclusive, and I know that those are trigger words to a lot of people. But he was a man who just, he just walked his own beat of the drum, right, he wasn't going through life saying, oh no, I can't hang out with you. You know he continued to go through and, uh, just pour into individuals and have friends. It didn't matter who they were. Kurt was still friends with them. And even when the individual who was gay said, hey, you know, kurt told him he's like I'm not gay, but I'll still be your friend. You know, we can still be friends and here we are, a a generation 30 years later, and it's pretty much acceptable to have friends. You know, there's people that different strokes for different folks, right. But again, it's not in my lane, it's not something that I have to worry about, right? Just cool, do your own thing, right. And I think that's really what kurt was a trend center for. We're talking about someone who, 30 years, was doing what is now the norm here.
Speaker 2:I just going back, even looking at the, the 30-year history of such an incredible individual, the music, the rich music and history behind this band just continues to pour into today's world. I mean, most people are like, yeah, I love Nirvana, or you don't love Nirvana, and that's the beauty of it. You have that opportunity just to listen to beautiful music. And let's take a listen to a piece of YouTube video of Kurt Cobain here. This gives us an opportunity just to take a listen to. You know someone who was crying for help, who needed help because he was addicted, and I believe this is some tapes of Kurt Cobain here.
Speaker 3:Because I just arrived and he knew it was breaking my heart and I talked to him about it and everything that I'd learned about heroin. We're talking about him. And I asked him if he was at the stage of where he was addicted to also the needle prick and he burst into tears.
Speaker 2:This is a man struggling. You know, as we listen to that audio, we're talking about a man who, whose rise to fame was such a rocket, just going up to number one, having everyone wanting to be a part of this movement, becoming the pop culture, everyone going into different magazines, buying your Doc Martens and your flannel shirts and your ripped jeans and the T-shirt underneath it was too much for anybody. And as we listen to his aunt there share a story about her confronting Kurt. This individual was hurting, was looking for help, was crying because he was at probably a point in his life where he was probably super addicted to the drug, maybe even to the, as she said, the needle prick. It is so crazy to me that this could be a thing. Send your text in. 775-990-5151. We're getting some texts that are coming in From the 253,. I was a young teenage girl who was crushed. Me and my friends took the opportunity to take the Metro bus to the Flag Pavilion, light candles, cry together and mourn. Thank you from the 253. If you have a text or you want to send us your story, I'd love to hear from you. 775-990-5151.
Speaker 2:Where were you during this time when Kurt Cobain passed away? Yeah, teenage kid. I remember it like it was yesterday and having an opportunity to work in radio and also in television for the local ABC station, komo TV. Talking to one of the old photographers, stephen Romaley, having he took this had the opportunity to capture probably the most iconic pictures of all time with the feet, and you know the. Yeah, he talks about that story before he retired. It's just hearing these stories from photogs and other individuals. Yes, thanks to Barnes Media. Hello from the flagship mother station over there at KVI. All right, well, keep us on the radio. We appreciate that this evening.
Speaker 2:If you ever never had an opportunity this is always a fun one to to go down to the KVI beach. It's on Vashon Island. So if you ever are looking for something to do, there's some fantastic to do in in vashon and, uh, big shout out to vashon island because if you're doing a cool day trip, they have a cool place. Uh, I forget the name of the um, it's like called like a warehouser or something like that. Um, you can go there and get some brunch and then there's, uh, some breweries. But go down to the beach. But remember, if you go to the kvi beach it's free to go on, uh, but make sure you uh pack it in, pack it out. All right, that's my uh, my public service, uh, to the to the station, uh, but yeah, it's always a fun opportunity to go. Hang out at kvi k.
Speaker 2:Kvi is an amazing spot to go and be Great sun. You can see the city. It's just, it's a cool place to be. There's some really rich history. Don't try to go into the antenna, the transmitter area, it's all blocked off. But there's a beach there. There's, I believe, some old nets and stuff. If you want to play volleyball, but pack it in, pack it out. Um, I can't.
Speaker 2:I was too young to be to have partake in the Cobain. I'm going to go to the Seattle Center and be a part of the movement. You know the mourning of of with friends, young and I. I was like, yeah, but I was also dabbling in between being like, listening to like hip-hop and going back to the grunge, and that's because of the influence of the radio station at the time, having been playing these songs because it was such a big movement at that point in time. I just remember people showing up and watching other past documentaries to get the rich history and going into lang studio in in uh, not auburn, but within edmunds, to go to where kurt cobain and nirvana had done some recording um to to hang out with robert lang for him to share stories like that, the. This is how these memories have continued through documentaries, through word of mouth. But even for myself, I find it so fascinating that, looking back at my own experience watching it either on the television or on TV, or having my own stories of listening to people share their stories with the radio or the TV, it was a thing. It just seemed like there was a cloud over the Pacific Northwest during that time. I mean, I know that the Pacific Northwest is always cloudy and there seems to be, in April, a very dark time. You know, it's cold, it's wet. It just seemed like that time seemed to be a little darker, a little grayer at that point in time.
Speaker 2:What I find to be super interesting at that point, after the passing of Kurt Cobain, it was almost like grunge had was like a pimple and it had popped. It was like it was, it had, it had burst. And that movement with all these different bands that were coming through the Pearl Jams, the Mud Honeys, the tons of other bands, right, people coming to the Northwest to cultivate these next bands. It had hit a movement and then you start to see the shift in the genre of grunge, you get the REMs of the world to start to you know, today it's going to be know that I that reminds me of, like, the hangover preceding the grunge movement moving to the next phase, the morning phase of that movement, and to me I feel that that piece of like the REMs of the world really were the bands that were pushing and it's almost like they went back to Brit, they went back to music that was more rock and roll, like a Beatles and like the REMs of the world, and these bands were really coming through at that point in time To kind of like not to move past the pimple pop and the heel.
Speaker 2:But you only got so many bands that are coming out of the Pacific Northwest. You got a lot of them, right, you really do. You have a really big, rich, cultivated mass of bands that came through the Pacific Northwest. I mean Nirvana, you got. You have dave groh, who did start foo fighters here by himself at lang studio. You got mud honey, you got, you know, allison chains. You all these, all these bands.
Speaker 2:But at what point, have you found them all? You know, we, we want to find the next band and it just seemed like it became too corporate at that point in time. That's the word I'm looking for. It became too corporate, you know, you start to see the pop culture commercials. Hey man, you know we're putting together. You know, you see the night, the eight hundred, eight, nine hundred, the one, eight hundred call collect commercials. And it became a pop culture movement. It became so mainstream that it was like everyone's like in that band, in that world, the grunge movement was like okay, I'm good, like we've had enough, we're done, this is too commercialized now. And so that movement had started to change and drift.
Speaker 2:The passing of, you know, kirk cobain. You start to see these other bands start to come to fruition, the rems, you know, foo fighters, uh, dave doing the project by himself. Uh, quite an interesting fact. I, I will always tell you that, look, as much as I, I am a true foo fighters fan. I'm going to tell you right now that band is nirvana, one point, but it's it's nirvana 2.0. That's really what it is.
Speaker 2:Because you got, you do have two members from nirvana that are in foo fighters, which I mean, that's half. That's, that's half the. That's half the band. You know there was two other players. One is that he no longer on the planet and the other one's like I'm good, not really going to be doing anything, but he's come back to play. You know, uh, chris novasek, uh, yeah, I mean, he's come back and he's played with, you know, with them on different tracks, and fast forward to present time and going to have a moment with my old man, my dad and my younger brother.
Speaker 2:You know we had an opportunity to go see Paul McCartney at then Safeco Field, now T-Mobile Park. But we had an opportunity to go see him, paul play, taking that all in to see a former Beatles perform and I know my dad and my brother have seen them before having the opportunity to go to be a part of something special and we'll never do again. But what was awesome about that opportunity was that we got gifted a really special piece where dave grohl and the rest of the remaining band members from Nirvana got together and performed. So that piece in itself was priceless. I was like, yeah, this is cool, the only thing that you know. Dave went back to the drums you know everyone and I think Paul sang. I don't remember who sang. Somebody sang, I don't recall, but it was. I got chills. I was like this is awesome. This is amazing.
Speaker 2:You know, I don't want to say it was a bandwagoner Nirvana fan becoming more of a fan as an adult versus in my youth, because by the time this all went down 94,. You know, I'm still a teen, but yeah, the movement was there, it was big. I mean, being such a small-minded suburb kid I wasn't really traveling outside of my little you know, 10 mile radius, taking the bus to go to the sea tack mall, going to the sea tack airport to hang out. Maybe if we got a wild hair we'd go go to South Center. We didn't venture to the city, we didn't make the trek all the way up. That was. It would have taken us all day. But there are kids that did. Let's see here if we have any more texts coming in. 775-990-5151. We have a text from the 360. 990-5151. We have a text from the 360. He says they actually went back to do a thing down, says here Text message says we had an opportunity to drive down to Aberdeen to go where Kurt Cobain spent a lot of his time underneath the bridge.
Speaker 2:So people celebrated Kurt in their own way within the lyrics of songs, to be able to yeah, I mean, take whatever was rich in their heart with these different songs and different albums. Um, great, you know great lyricist. But you know, even listening to dave talk in different interviews of him saying that dave wrote it was it was magical, it was super easy. They kept it simple. There wasn't a lot of discussion back and forth and maybe we need to rewrite this for this bar and this and that All music terms that I don't really understand. But the beauty of what the band was was it was raw, it was pure and that's what made Nirvana such such a successful band. It touched so many people, it touched the jocks, it touched all these different. It cross-pollinated different genres and clicks within high schools and the geeks and the jocks and everyone's listening to these different albums and you know teen spirit just blowing up and even to this day, when you hear that song you get jacked. Tell me you don't get jacked when you listen to Smells Like Teen Spirit Drive. When you're done listening to the show, the podcast, if you're driving around listening to one of our radio stations. When you're done listening to the show, the podcast. If you're driving around listening to one of our radio stations and we're done go tune in to Smells Like Teen Spirit and tell me you turn that up, you don't get jacked Again. Another text message from the 253.
Speaker 2:We had an opportunity to drive down to Aberdeen as well. We were part of what we thought was a special movement, spent some time going through the city hanging out at different places that Kurt really enjoyed. These are cool memories to hear because to me I didn't have that experience. That's cool. Thank you for sharing these experiences with me. I appreciate that because, listen, this show doesn't exist without the listeners.
Speaker 2:And to not look, I, I mean I'm just here to to be the venue. I was a huge fan, loved the band, especially now. You know spending, like we know that the anniversary has passed, but I wanted to do something, not prior to but after thoughtful, just be thoughtful about it and have a conversation as we, you know, as we journey down the path of life. You know the world didn't end. I mean we saw a beautiful eclipse thing, I mean, and everything that the spec, the naysayers and speculators and speculation of different individuals talking about they were going to try to do martial law or they're going to practice a run. There seemed to be none of that. Look, you know, regardless it was, I mean I had to watch.
Speaker 2:I was there for 2017, down in Lincolnincoln city and I and my hands are moving around. You can't see me if you're listening to the stream or watching or listening to us on the stations, but if you're watching me, my hands are flailing anymore, because over here is my 2017, my 2017,. As I point, over in the studio, I have a picture from the 2017 solar eclipse. It was fantastic, it was magical, it was pure. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen.
Speaker 2:And I had an opportunity. I watched the feed on YouTube, the ABC feed. It went across the entire country, starting in Mazatlan and going all the way up. I was touched. It was cool. Not the same experience, obviously, but it was cool still to watch it, to be a part of it, to listen to other individuals, have that opportunity, that aha moment. Right, man? I yeah, so we're still here.
Speaker 2:But again, like I said, take a few minutes after the show's done tonight on your way home or whatever you're doing. If you're working out whatever, go back and listen to Smells Like Teen Spirit. It's gonna get you jacked. You're going to be ready the drums, the way it just hits Kurt's voice. Listen to the song. In that one you may find some not much of anything, but the song hits. It just hits different Some other things that are going on around here.
Speaker 2:Getting back to the paranormal I've been struggling with. You know, I know a lot of people have been going on vacation, me having a little bit of envious, and you know, those who are out there doing their thing, uh, having the opportunity to, you know, go on on a vacation with fan friends and family. Um, I, it made me think of haunted places. You know different haunted places that are. You know, maybe you're going to a disneyland, maybe you're going to Disneyland, maybe you're going to a Knott's Berry Farm, maybe you're going to a destination, for maybe you're going down to Lincoln City, maybe you're going to a theme park, disneyland for one, going through the paranormal. And I wanted to know, like I don't think that any, anytime that I've gone to disneyland, I don't ever recall and I've heard the stories that is, take it took time to build disneyland and they wanted to get the haunted mansion right so that they could put the ghost in the you know, and and you see walt talk about this.
Speaker 2:We're talking about Walt Disney at Disneyland and we know that Disneyland is a great place to go. Let's not I mean it's the mecca of vacations. You want to go somewhere. You're like, hey, where are we going? We need to take the kids to Disneyland and it seems to be that this is the place where everybody likes to take a vacation to. You know, I mean, yes, I've gone many of times, taken my daughter and been a part of some amazing opportunities. You know I just going back through. You know the experiences and you talk about the, the disneyland experience.
Speaker 2:Right, we're not talking like going through the haunted mansion, don't get me wrong. I love the haunted mansion. We're not talking about the, the spooky snacks that you can get, and you know the, the makeover of the, the cars land area. We're talking about full-fledged haunted spots within disneyland. We're not talking about the sleepy hollow and the. You know the headless horseman and the things that you see around the, the hitchhiking ghost, and and then you know the different haunted mansion and you know the just the nightmare before christmas theme. You know haunted mansion that comes. Know the just the, the nightmare before christmas theme. You know haunted mansion, that comes in the fall. We're talking about full-fledged haunted places like malt disney's apartment above the, the fire station.
Speaker 2:A lot of people say it's haunted. They said the bathroom within the? Um, I almost called it the universal studios, which is not um, um, not the universal studios, but we're talking the disneyland hotel. Um, leaving you play on my drive home, oh nice, thank you for listening this on the drive home. Now, as, as we're talking about not talking about haunted like, let me get back to it.
Speaker 2:So, being haunted in regards to, like spooky, paranormal, like walt disney's ghost is within the apartment at disneyland, this is the kind of things that we want to cover and talk about, because I don't recall ever seen. I mean, I've gotten on the haunted mansion ride many of times and I'll be honest with you, it's way better during the haunted times where they do the nightmare before christmas theme fantastic, if you're looking to go to disneyland and I love the haunted mansion, trust me, I do but the experience that you get during that period of time when it's in the holiday, the nightmare before christmas theme, you're driving through and you're still seeing a lot of the, the changes, right, but the smells, and this is what makes disney disney. Like you're driving around and you see these ghosts preparing, preparing gingerbread houses. You get a whiff. You get that whiff of I love how I'm doing this too much, but anyhow you get that whiff of the cinnamon from the gingerbread houses and you smell the gingerbread and it just it's just the piping. I don't know where they're getting this stuff from, oh, but it smells so good, just the piping. I don't know where they're getting this stuff from, oh, but it smells so good. Fun fact I can't have cinnamon, I don't know why, but, uh, if I eat too much of it, I actually probably attribute it to eating way too much. Uh, cinnamon toast crunch as a kid. Uh, like by the truckloads, like two, three, four, five, six bowls, uh, I digress so good.
Speaker 2:Getting back to this, there are places within disneyland that people say is haunted, so, um, I wanted to share some audio of what this might actually look like for us. Let's listen, let's take a listen and see what this looks like for us. Let's hear this audio. Well, maybe Stand by. Yeah, I got to find the audio. Oh, where'd it go? Oh, no, but oh no, that's funny. Where, oh where did it go? Oh, here it is, here we go. Let's play the audio now.
Speaker 5:Cheese walt's spirit is always alive in disneyland. However, the chances of having a ghostly encounter with him is greatest after closing. So here are nine ghost stories told by cast members that may help convince you that Walt never left.
Speaker 2:Let's hear number nine. Let's see if this is what.
Speaker 5:The Golden Horseshoe in Frontierland is known by cast members to be one of the most haunted locations in all of Disneyland. Several ghosts are known to appear in the saloon, including a little girl, a deceased former cast member, and Walt. Long after Walt's death, one of the leads reported that when he worked closing shift they believed Walt watched them. When they would clean the floors they would place the chairs up on the tables. In Walt's favorite box above the stage, one chair was commonly found back upright on the floor. He also said that the smell of cigarette smoke would waft from that area said that the smell of cigarette smoke would waft from that area.
Speaker 2:Ooh, I don't know that if I was working at Disneyland that I oh the smell of smoke, the that feeling of the presence of somebody there, I don't know. Let's listen to number eight. Let's see if I'm buying. Are you buying these? Let me know. Send me a text at 775-990-5151. Love to hear from you. If you're watching on our stream on Twitch, youtube or Facebook, please, you can leave us a comment. We'll get it played.
Speaker 5:Walt's love of steam trains and his desire to have a life size railroad of his own was a major impetus for him to build disneyland. Out of the five steam trains at disneyland, an average of three are usually running on the main line around the park during operating hours. After closing closing they all returned to the roundhouse for their nightly inspections and maintenance. According to a former cast member, the train command center has a board that shows where trains are on the track. He said usually in the dead of night, when all the trains are off the main line and in the roundhouse, a train would show up on the board in the corner and sometimes you could even hear its whistle blow. He said that the older cast members used to say that's Walt's train. Oh, that's a good one.
Speaker 5:One night around 2.30 am, a supervisor and a couple of friends who had special permission to be there after hours were walking through an empty fantasy land towards the castle. To their surprise, through the castle's passageway they saw an older man wearing 1960s-style clothing standing on the drawbridge. He turned and looked at them, Smiled and waved. They said it was Walt. He turned back towards Main Street and began walking towards the hub and then vanished Before their eyes.
Speaker 2:You know, being at the park Late at night and Having the opportunity, I know, at some parts of Disneyland, because of the way that Disneyland was built, sometimes when things are going on they will funnel traffic through the back alleys of Disneyland, through the back alleys of Disneyland so you don't have that underground opportunity for cast members and things of that nature to go like they do at Disney World. But what I've seen and what I've heard from other cast members through different videos and watching on different YouTube videos, through different videos and watching on different YouTube videos, you hear a lot of these stories like this one that I was just told, that this presence seems to be lurking when the park becomes still where the energy has changed.
Speaker 5:When Walt was alive, he was known for giving off a loud cough when he walked down the studio hallways. Walt was a heavy smoker, but this cough was more to give a warning sign to his workers that the boss was in the area. Well, late one night, two security guards were patrolling New Orleans Square. They were walking down the Court of Angels staircase outside of Club 33 when they both heard a man cough and they instantly smelled cigarette smoke. They could not find anyone in the area. The security guard who shared this story stated I just have too many things that have happened to list them all here.
Speaker 5:A cast member who did not believe in ghosts had a run-in with the ghost of Walt Disney late one night on the sailing ship Columbia. He was cleaning below deck when he began to feel the hairs stand up on the back of his neck and had an uneasy feeling that he wasn't alone. Then, just in front of the forward bulkhead, he saw the faintest hint of swirling mist that began to thicken. He started walking towards it and got two-thirds of the way there when the mist took form of a young walt disney. He stopped dead in his tracks, unable to move, as Walt stared at him. And then Walt vanished. Needless to say, he was so utterly freaked out that he didn't finish cleaning below deck that night.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't either. Nope, I'd be out. Nope, I'm out.
Speaker 5:Gotta go One night a cast member was cleaning Walt's apartment above the firehouse and when she was leaving she turned off the lamp in the window. Once she exited the building she noticed the lamp was back on, so she returned to the apartment, turned off the lamp and left again. After stepping back outside she looked up to find that the lamp was back on again. This made she went back up to oh oh.
Speaker 5:Ooh. Walt didn't like to smoke his cigarettes in front of children. He felt like he had to embody a more wholesome Uncle Walt persona. So when Walt was at Disneyland he would often smoke on the staircase that leads to his apartment behind the firehouse. After Walt died, a security supervisor said that he would smell intense cigarette smoke back there almost every night shift. He used to try to catch the smoker but he never did. He was dumbfounded. He was smelling fresh smoke but there was no one smoking. He never could find any cigarette butts or any ashes left behind.
Speaker 2:He finally concluded that it must be Walt having a smoke.
Speaker 5:Ooh smoky, Walt A police member who worked at the Emporium on Main Street was leaving her closing shift after 2 am. While she was walking across Main Street alone, she heard a man humming and walking behind her, clearly wearing dress shoes. She assumed it was another cast member, but when she turned to see who it was, no one was there. She went on to say that she likes to think it was Walt, that's probably Walt. One night after closing, some cast members were in the fire station below Walt's apartment.
Speaker 5:When they began to hear footsteps of someone walking around above them. They assumed it was another cast member. However, the apartment was empty and had been locked up for hours. If you'd like to see more spooky Disneyland ghost story videos, please give this video a like or leave me a comment below. Nice job.
Speaker 2:That audio courtesy of Nine from YouTube. We'll have a link posted in the podcast if you'd like to check that out. You know what's interesting to me? The stories that were shared here this evening.
Speaker 2:I find it interesting that when we look at this and when we listen, or if you watched or however you consume our show, most of these stories were about walt, either at the fire station, backstage behind the fire station, um, walt is present there. I don't know if he's cryogenically frozen in time, um, if they have workers that are smoking there to allure the the like. Oh, the memory of him, um, but needless to say, below deck these stories, there there is something within the park if it's because look back in those days that that place was, was agricultural. Back in the day it was all farmland, it was oranges, a lot of orange, uh, orchards back then, um, so I don't know that a lot of people were. It wasn't like a bustling city or like a saloon from the western days. None of that kind of existed there. So you look at these stories, and one that was not shared was the haunted story about the Disneyland Hotel, where a kid, who was a very young kid, waiting for his dad who worked at the Disneyland Hotel who had gone to the bathroom and heard somebody in the bathroom washing his hands. He came out. He saw how the water was running and there was nobody there. There are multiple stories. Eventually they ended up closing off that restroom to the general public because of the haunts. They didn't want people to become spooked out from it.
Speaker 2:I haven't had that experience. Maybe you have Love to hear from you. 775-990-5151. If you're watching the stream, you can send us a. You can send a message. We'll get it posted up.
Speaker 2:Have you had an experience at a theme park Disneyland, knott's, berry Farms, six Flags, whatever. Have you ever had one of those experiences where maybe you saw a hunt? Let's see here we got one from the 206. Back in the day I thought I saw something on the old school ride from who Framed Roger Rabbit. Were you in the car? Okay, I remember that ride as a kid. Uh, who framed Roger Rabbit. We're here in the car, okay, uh, I remember that ride as a kid and I do remember that ride. I don't think it's there now. I think they're renamed. I think they redid that whole tune, that that tune town, uh, and it's a new name and a whole new theme there at that, at the theme park. So, um, yeah, all right. So we got some exciting news. We're going to be doing a um. We're going to be doing. We're going to team up with somebody very special with the um, we're going to be teaming up with somebody.
Speaker 2:But before we give out all that, those details, um, if you're listening, watching, however you, how that plays out, here's what I I'll tell you. We've all gone camping and I know we all have terrible camping experiences. I want to hear about your camping experiences, like, for example, mine back in the day 90s. My dad we would always do this camping thing Every my dad and his buddy, his buddy Abel, and his wife. We'd take the dogs and we'd go camping. My friend Roger would go with us.
Speaker 2:We would go to Lake Chelan. We'd stay at the state park at Lake Chelan, on the water, have our little campsite, two campsites parallel to each other. So we had like a chalet. It was nice. You got the two decks, you got the tents, you got the cold brew skis I'm not drinking because I'm underage my dad's got his, his little cooler there. They had their coolers. Fantastic time right. It's always nice in chaland, not this time, as we're hanging out and, uh, here's where it goes south really fast, which was interesting because this went south so fast.
Speaker 2:And then it changed. But what happened was there was a tornado warning, there was a thunderstorm that was rolling through the lake chaland area that was coming through and what was interesting, as we were listening to the radio, you could hear there were reports of tornadoes, a funnel cloud that had been seen. Mind you, I've been from the Pacific Northwest all my life. I haven't seen anything like this before. And as we're watching down the lake, you can see the thunderstorm coming up the lake. And I tell you we went from a beautiful day and you heard the thunder. You could hear the thunder roaring and it was time. It was like, okay, we've got to go back to the campsite. So we go back. We got ice cream the whole nine yards. We finally get back to our tents. We're listening to the radio. My dad's, like you, got to hunker down. The storm's coming, storm's coming. My dad's sitting there, he's got my little brother and they're hanging out in one tent, my buddy Roger and I.
Speaker 2:It was a disaster. This storm came barreling through wind, whipping things getting knocked away. Barreling through wind, whipping things getting knocked away. I'm telling you it was wild, tense, wet. It just soggy, mess storm rolled through. There were spots of the funnel cloud that touched down on the lake but never made it. It never made it upstream up the lake. We have one here that says here we go. Barnes Media says we had a funnel cloud in Spokane one year when I was a kid. Yeah, interesting that when we talk about these funnel clouds, by the time it came up the lake it was just a roaring thunder storm a lot of wind, a lot of rain. I mean we had water within our tents and then it passed and then the sun came back out. We were able to kind of recover from it.
Speaker 2:But I want to hear your stories because we're going to do something special. We're going to next week, when you're listening to the podcast. We're going to make this a podcast exclusive. So if you're not subscribing to our podcast, if you're listening on the radio awesome, make sure you subscribe to the podcast. Go to your favorite podcasting platform to subscribe. Please go search US Phenomenon US Phenomenon. You go to my website, onairmariocom. You can click on the link to take you to subscribe to the podcast. We're going to have some incredible things coming. We're going to give you an opportunity to win a very cool camping experience.
Speaker 2:That's all I'm going to say for now, but that's what we're going to be doing. We're going to, we're going to want to hear your camping stories. Now what I want you to do is I want you to email me your story. Send me a text, let me know. I want to hear where your camping story is from. 775-990-5151. But we really want you to email your camping stories. So send them to me. Mario at onairmariocom. You can send it to me at mario at northwestphenomenon, if you can't spell that.
Speaker 2:But I'm telling you, go to my website, become a subscriber to the podcast, or you're not going to be able to be a part. We're going to be looking for those podcast numbers. We not going to be able to be a part. We're going to be looking for those podcast numbers. We're going to give you certain codes to put in these, these stories. So we're going to give you a certain a code to give you so you can put it within your stories and we're going to read these stories on the radio show podcast. And then, between our special guest and who we will present here shortly, we will go ahead and we're going to give you a really cool, awesome experience to do something incredible.
Speaker 2:All right, from the pacific northwest. I want to thank you, the listeners, again. We can't do the show without you. You have a suggestion of a show that you would like us to do? Send me a text, email me. Mario at on air mariocom. Mario at, uh, us phenomenon, northwest phenomenon, however you want to spell it, but it's always easier to go to uh, mario at on air mariocom. Send me a text if you got a suggestion, 775-990-5151. I may not get back to you right away, but I will get back to you. I promise you they go straight to me. Okay, no one else is getting these text messages. Um, from the pacific north list again. Thank you so much for listening. If you're watching on the stream. Thank you so much, uh again for my entire team. Sophie.
Speaker 2:Oh, we didn't even get to play the audio. We did a recreation of the Francis Bean Memorial man. Let me see if I can find this audio real quick. We got to play it. We got to play it because this is the first time that we've had oh and we got to do. We got to. Yes, we need to do. A Bigfoot convention is coming. We need to do this. It's time to get the Bigfoot convention is coming. We need to do this. It's time to get the Bigfoot convention back. Barnes Media yes, it is time. We need to get a hold of Lost Woods Brewery Now. We had an opportunity we did a recreation of the Francis Bean to go back to the pot, to go back to this special piece here. Let me pull this up real quick. This is let me see here. Let's see how this is going to play 30 years ago.
Speaker 2:Oh okay, so here we go. We have the audio of. This is a recreation of Frances Bean's social media post of her father.
Speaker 4:My dad's life ended. The second and third photo captured the last time we were together when he was still alive. His mom, wendy, would often press her hands to her cheeks and say with a lowing sadness you have his hands. She would breathe them in as if they were her only chance just to hold him a little bit closer, frozen in time. I hope she's holding his hands wherever they are.
Speaker 4:In the last 30 years, my ideas around loss have been in a continuous state of metamorphosing. The biggest lesson learned through grieving for almost as long as I am conscious is that it serves a purpose. The duality of life and death, pain and joy, yin and yang need to exist alongside each other, or none of this world would have any meaning. It is the impermanent nature of human existence which throws us into the depths of our most authentic life. As it turns out, there is no greater motivation for leaning into loving awareness and knowing everything ends.
Speaker 4:I wish I could have known my dad. I wish I knew the cadence of his voice, how he liked his coffee or the way it felt to be tucked in after a bedtime story. I've always wondered if he would have caught tadpoles with me during the muggy Washington summers, or if he smelled of camel lights and strawberry Nesquik his favorite, I've been told. But there's also deep wisdom. Being on an expedited path to understanding how precious life is, he gifted me a lesson in death that can only come through the lived experience of losing someone. It is a gift of knowing for certain when we love ourselves and those around us with compassion, with openness, with grace, the more meaningful our time here inherently becomes.
Speaker 4:Kurt wrote me a letter before I was born. The last line of it reads wherever you go or wherever I go, I will always be with you. He kept this promise because he is present in so many ways, whether it is by hearing a song or through his hands. We share In those moments. I get to spend a little time with my dad and he feels transcendent To anyone who has wondered what it would have looked like to live alongside the people who have lost. I'm holding you in my thoughts today and the meaning of our grief is the same that audio built by my young daughter, uh.
Speaker 2:So thank you, sophia, for uh recreating and listening or and and voicing uh kirko bain's daughter francis beans story that was posted on social media. We wanted to recreate that piece um the gift. So, again, uh, sorry for being so tardy with that, I mean we just got so all over the place, but uh, again, thank you so much for taking the time to hang out with us. For uh, for my entire team, sophia, thank you so much, uh always being uh the star of my life. Uh, thank you so much to barnes media for everything you've done for us, um the entire staff and all the radio stations, uh and uh myself. Uh, thank you for uh continuing to do the podcast. We will be more consistent, I promise you. And thank you to our soon-to-be contributor.
Speaker 2:We're excited to make this announcement. I can't wait to make this announcement coming up. But get ready, we're going to do some cool things. We're going to continue to do things with cool local companies Barnes Media if you ever need anybody photos, videos, barnes media they he does a fantastic job. If you ever need, we got some old footage of the first bigfoot conference that is coming back. We're going to recreate. We're going to reuse some of that, but you're going to start seeing that uh pop up here on social feeds soon. So for, for my entire team myself, mario Magana be sure to look up at the sky, because you never know what you might see. Good night.