Haunted Music Hall

by Justin 30. May 2009 13:17

The following article is from page 8 of the October 22, 1876 edition of the Cincinnati Commercial. Music Hall is built over top of a burial ground where the city's poor, suicides, and unknown strangers were buried. As soon as graves were excavated for construction, allegedly, ghostly activity appeared in Exposition Hall (also known as Saengerhalle)—a temporary wooden structure that was used for everything from the May Festival chorus to the Republican Nation Convention.

This article is mentioned in John B. Kachuba's Ghosthunting Ohio, as well as shown in part in CET's documentary Music Hall: Cincinnati Finds Its Voice. Both of these, as well as the article, are available at the Cincinnati Public Library. The article is availble in microfilm form at the main library. According to Kachuba, the below article was written by Lafcadio Hearn but I didn't see a name on it.

If you enjoy this check out the October 29, 2006 WVXU interview with employees of Music Hall. 

 


Gossip About City Ghosts

The site of the late Exposition Building, now being excavated for the erection of the Springer Music Hall, affords, in the number of human skulls and portions of skeletons daily exhumed from it, abundant food for the spectral fancies of the people who placed faith in the familiar stories about ghosts haunting the old frame edifice.

It does not appear that the ghosts troubled anybody until after a large number of the yellow bones for which they hold a certain spectral affection, had been dug up in making way for the erection of an elevator in Exposition Hall. Those bones were simply packed into a barrel and stowed away in a convenient part of the building, apparently much to the discomfort of their invisible owners. For skulls and thigh bones and vertebrae had been hopelessly jumbled up in that barrel, so that no one save a most expert articulator could have sorted them out properly. From that hour shadowy people wandered restlessly through the creaking halls by night, hiding in dark corners, stealing behind pillars, and creating queer crepitating noises under the dim roof. The night watchman in charge of the building was greatly annoyed by these mysterious sounds. Whithersoever he went within the edifice by night, the sound of stealthly footsteps followed him; when he stopped they ceased, when he moved again they also followed,—timid feet, invisible, intangible, tireless; and the loose plank that uttered a hollow groan under the watchman's foot, never failed to respond with a gentler moan to the ghostly tread behind. There were strange knockings, too, at all hours of the night—knockings seemingly for admission. But when the door was unbarred and opened, none stood without in the night shadow, nor did the snow in the winter midnights show the print of feet. Sometimes sounds of mocking laughter broke the silence; sometimes strange whispers, faint and thin as whispers falling on the drowsy ears of dying men in the sick rooms; sometimes loud echoes, as of heavy bodies falling in the darkness from the roof to the hollow flooring above the ancient place of graves. Yet no one who ran, lantern in hand, to the place of these inexplicable sounds ever discovered their origin. Dogs brought into the building whined to be let out, and followed their masters with ever sign of abject terror—eye balls wildly protruding, and ears laid back. The invisible folk seemed restless in all weathers, winter and summer alike, but the disturbances seemed slightly aggravated in character by a moist atmosphere, as though the rattling, pattering, murmuring of Voices of the Rain without compelled the dead to increase the volume of ghostly sound within that it might become audible to the ears of vexed mortals. During fetes and balls, indeed, no mysterious sounds were heard in the building, whether that the strong magnetism of a great living assembly and the crash of brazen instruments crushed all spectral forces into quiescence, or whether that the ghostly power—faint as a faint summer breeze—weak as the flower which so slowly opens its heart to the sun—vainly strove to make itself felt even by an organized effort of extraordinary vigor. The former supposition seems to receive some support from the conduct of the ghosts immediately after such entertainments at Exposition Hall; for just so soon as the last guest had departed, and the last light had been extinguished, the poor souls manifested their impotent indignation by a more than ordinary unpleasant concatenation of noises—not as though they had been struggling to oppose earthly with unearthly sounds, but as though they had escaped from temporary imprisonment and oppression.

From the fact that they never exhibited themselves in any visible form to the watchman, it was long supposed that these eerie folk lacked power to manifest themselves. But there are people who visited the last Expositino willing to testify otherwise. One morning, a certain exhibitor beheld a lady standing before his booth—a lady so strange of aspect that he involuntarily regarded her with peculiar curiosity. She seemed tall and fair and young, clad in a pale dress of fashion long—forgotten, and wearing her hair flowing loose, uncovered by hat or bonnet. He approached the white figure, prompted by a desire to catch a glimpse of the features bent over the case, but ready to mask this purpose by politely placing his knowledge of the wares at the stranger's service. But as he stepped forward, the figure became diaphanous, faint, serial, finally invisible, and a chill as of December winds passed over him. The tall woman had been sepultured under the yellow clay below the planking upon which he stood; and the worms had formed the wedding—rings of Death about her fingers half a century before.

And now this rich yellow soil, fat with the human flesh and bone and brain it has devoured, is being disemboweled by a hundred spades and forces to exhibit its ghastly secrets to the sun. About the excavation you may observe at intervals large dry goods boxes, some open, some nailed up; and if you peer into those yet open you will behold small Golgothas therein—mingled piles of skulls, loose vertebrae, fibulae, tibiae and the great curving bones of the thigh. All are yellow, like the cannible clay which denuded them of their fleshly masks; light as decayed wood; crumbling like tan—bark under the fingers. Take up the skull; it weighs but a few ounces; knock two together—the clear, dry sound of well—preserved bone will not follow. The skulls sound like decayed cocoa nut shells when thumbed together. All the bones are yellow, save the teeth, which still gleam whitely. Few of the smaller bones remain; none of those forming fingers and toes; no complete skeletons are exhumed. Most of the skulls are broken, crushed, crumbled in; there is no "scentless and delicate dust" remaining to pinch between the fingers,—it is a damp decay, a sort of moist necrophagy; and of the coffins only the outlines remain in the soil. One tuft of red hair has survived the jaws of the grave, and has been thrown in loosely with the bones; for to what skull it once belonged can not now be guessed.

"They have not yet struck the graves where they are the thickest," observed Captain Wilson yesterday. "Wait till they strike under the old North Hall."

The crowds gather thickly about the excavation, and watch each new discovery with ghoulish interest. Bone after bone as soon as thrown out is turned over with a scientific application of kicks; ragamuffins brandish femora with disgusting exultation; dirty fingers are poked into empty eye sockets; jaw—bones are experimentally hammered with heavy canes; ribs crack in pitiful remonstrance to reckless feet; and tobacco juice is carelessly squirted among the decaying skulls. "Alas! poor ghost!"

Without a force of police at the excavation, such things can not be avoided, for it is impossible at present either to keep the crowd from entering the grounds, or to keep some from being mischievous after entering. When driven away from one spot they return to another; and by night there come medical students to steal the poor skulls.

It is likely that the ghosts will be driven away from their old resting places merely because some of their bones are removed therefrom? Who dare guess how deeply that soil is permeated with the substance of the dead? Who can say whether the perturbed spirits will follow the dry goods boxes which contain only a small moiety of their moldering skeletons; or whether they will prefer to haunt the spot on earth which absorbed the protoplasmic life that erst belonged to them; or whether, multiplying themselves by ghastly self division, like spectral polypi, they may not haunt obiquitously the site of their ancient graves, the place of their second burial and the locality whereat the yellow soil now carted away by speculative contractors, shall be duly dumped?


 

 

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Create a Mobile Friendly Website with ASP.NET Themes

by Justin 8. November 2008 10:15

Download the Demo (ASP.NET 2.0)

If you're reading this you realize the value of optimizing websites for mobile devices. I created an ASP.NET website that chooses a different theme depending on whether or not the device accessing the page is a mobile device. If a mobile device is recognized the theme displays a red background, otherwise a different theme is chosen which displays a blue background. Feel free to check out my online demo for custom theming mobile devices, and download a zipped version of the demo to see exactly how it works. Be sure to view the demo in both a mobile and non-mobile browser to get the full effect. If you don't have a mobile device try using the online Opera Mini simulator.

Supported Mobile Devices:

  • Apple iPhone
  • Apple iPod
  • Google Android
  • Opera Mini
  • PlayStation Portable
  • Handspring Blazer
  • Motorola Internet Browser
  • Pocket IE
  • RIM Browser
  • Nokia
  • Compact NetFront

How it Works

I've added some custom browser definitions to the App_Browsers folder. This extends the default ASP.NET browser definitions, which are not very good for recognizing mobile devices. There are two .browser files, courtesy of Owen Bradly's website, that contains the definitions. (I'll note that I added a definition for recognizing the Google Android as it was not in Owen's files.) Each time the Default.aspx page is request I check to see if a supported Mobile device is requested the page. If so then I change the theme to the mobile theme. The code to do this is very simple.

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page 
{
    protected void Page_PreInit(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (Request.Browser.IsMobileDevice)
            Theme = "Mobile";
    }
}

If you're using Master pages you can always set this in the master page's code behind instead of each individual page's code behind.

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asp.net

The Youtube Generation vs Moribund TV Technology

by Justin 27. September 2008 14:27

It boggles my mind that television networks still don't get it. Executives have chosen to bring back shows like 90210 in hope it will woo the younger viewers who aren't watching TV anymore. The truth is, we want to watch television, but we want to watch it when we want to watch it. We have been spoiled by the internet.

Television networks are still "time-slot-centric." They chose to strategically place shows on different days to compete with other networks, and to run these at certain times. If television executives really want to land younger viewers they are going to have to become "viewer-centric." That is, they must redefine television technology. With today's technology any episode from any television channel should be available at any time. Not just modern shows, but shows that go as far back as TV goes should be readily available for viewing.

It is this on-demand capability that make youtube so.. friendly. How many times have you turned on the boob tube, flipped through the channels and thought, "there's not a single thing worth watching on TV." How many times have you wanted to watch two different TV shows, but you had to miss one because two competing stations put them in the same time slot on the same day? So what do you do? You jump on the computer, navigate to youtube, and within moments you can find the show. On the other hand, with youtube there's a sense of adventure because I often discover a video of something new and fascinating. TV as it is now just can not compete with this!

My generation wants to go to the History Channel, browse through an endless list of shows, and have the ability to download (or stream) any show that I want to see. I'm talking about true on-demand television, I'm talking about completely shifting the paradigm of TV as we currently know it. I'm tired of being forced to watch boring Ice Road Trucker marathons!

In this type of conversation it's inevitable that someone will mention TiVo, but while TiVo is a step in the right direction it is NOT the solution. Its problem is that you have to schedule when the shows are to be recorded.  There's a certain amount of effort and research to find the shows you might want to see in the future. Then you have to schedule TiVo to record the show, and then find time later to watch the show.

That's too much work! I don't want to do any research at all! I want to be able to turn on the TV whenever I feel like it and choose what I want to watch, right now. I want nearly unlimited options. That's the problem with modern TV, it's old technology that is dragging its feet. It simply can not compete with the internet. The same thing that happened to the recording industry about a decade ago is now happening with the television industry. They need to wake up and smell the technology!

I propose paying for subscriptions to television channels. For instance, if I want to watch just the History Channel, Comedy Central, and the Travel Channel I can subscribe to those for a fee. Preferrably I could choose unlimited downloading of all shows, without commericials, for one fee; and then pay less for a streaming version of the channel with commercials. Why isn't this being done? The problem with TV is that it isn't as tailored to the viewer as much as the internet is. You have to watch whatever it is the channel wants you to watch, and if you miss a show you have to find the next time it reruns and catch it then. People today do NOT want to schedule their lives around TV shows!

Is it any wonder that ratings have dropped for season premiers on all the major networks? It's not that the shows are bad, it's just the technology is lame. More than likely more people are watching the shows, but they're probably downloading it online instead. TV is going to have to evolve, rather quickly, to be as flexible (or almost as flexible) as the internet or continue its inevitable death.

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The Rules of Web Development

by Justin 26. July 2008 16:04

As far as I'm concerned, there are only two rules when it comes to developing for the web.

  1. Do NOT use the <blink> tag
  2. Do NOT use Comic Sans
  3. Do NOT use the <center> tag
Everything else is open to debate.

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Firefox World Record and IMSLP Returns!

by Justin 3. July 2008 01:23

First, champions of public domain rejoice! IMSLP (International Music Score Library Project) is back online! It was shut down last year when Universal Edition threatened to sue the site for copyright infridgement. Of course, if you don't know, IMSLP only contains scores that are in the public domain. That means free and legal. So most of the works you'll see there are PDF scans of very old sheet music. However, that doesn't sit well with companies that make good money off of long dead composers. So they used lawyers to intimidate the college student behind IMSLP, who does not have the means to legally protect himself. Thankfully, many people got behind the kid and offered support, including some prominent university legal experts. Regardless, it's back online!

Second, Firefox indeed set the Guiness World Record for Most Downloads in a 24-hour time frame. According to Spread Firefox: "We set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours. With your help we reached 8,002,530 downloads."

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Uber Geeky

by Justin 26. June 2008 00:20

I'm a professional computer programmer with a degree in Computer Science. Needless to say, I've seen some pretty geeky things done by some pretty geeky people, but nothing tops what a co-worker showed me the other day.

If you telnet to towel.blinkenlights.nl then you'll see an entire scene-by-scene recreation of the first (er, fourth) Star Wars movie done in ASCII!

  1. In Windows go to Start > Run..., or hold down the windows key and press R. 
  2. Type "telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl", without the quotes.
  3. Marvel.



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Firefox 3.0 To Be Released 6/17/2008

by Justin 14. June 2008 12:09
Version 3.0 of Firefox will officially be released to the public on June 17th, 2008. You will be able to download it from http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord. You can view the release notes at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.0/releasenotes/.

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Using the HTML label element with ASP.NET

by Justin 1. May 2008 00:28

You've probably noticed that a <asp:Label /> element actually renders a <span> tag, not the <label for="name"> tag that's been around since HTML 4. Luckily, it's pretty easy to include the label element in your ASP.NET forms.

ASP.NET 2.0, 3.0, 3.5 and Later

To make the <asp:Label /> control render as a <label> instead of a <span> include the AssociatedControlID attribute like so.

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="_Default" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
	<title>Untitled Page</title>
</head>
<body>
	<form id="form1" runat="server">
		<asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server" AssociatedControlID="TextBox1" Text="Label"></asp:Label>
		<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
	</form>
</body>
</html>

 

ASP.NET 1.0, 1.1

Unfortunately, older versions of ASP.NET don't support the AssociatedControlID attribute. Instead, you'll have to create a regular HTML <label> element and manually write out the ID of the associated control in the "for" attribute. 

<%@ Page language="c#" Codebehind="WebForm1.aspx.cs" AutoEventWireup="false" Inherits="test.WebForm1" %>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" >
<HTML>
<HEAD>
	<title>WebForm1</title>
	<meta name="GENERATOR" Content="Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 7.1">
	<meta name="CODE_LANGUAGE" Content="C#">
	<meta name="vs_defaultClientScript" content="JavaScript">
	<meta name="vs_targetSchema" content="http://schemas.microsoft.com/intellisense/ie5">
</HEAD>
<body MS_POSITIONING="GridLayout">
	<form id="Form1" method="post" runat="server">
		<label for="<%=TextBox1.ClientID %>">Label</label>
		<asp:TextBox id="TextBox1" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
	</form>
</body>
</HTML>

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Decompile a .NET DLL into a Visual Studio project

by Justin 26. April 2008 09:34

As a professional developer you will eventually have to view or edit some code that you do not have the original source to. The original source could've been lost, accidently deleted, or never given to you when it should've been. When you are in one of these situations try the following.

  1. Download Reflector, which allows you to open an assembly (i.e. DLL file) and view its contents. However, by default you can not modify or export the contents of the DLL. You will need Add-Ins to do that.
  2. Extract Reflector into a directory on your computer. I chose C:\Program Files\Reflector\ as my directory.
  3. Download the File Disassembler Add-In, which allows you to export the contents of the assembly into a Visual Studio project.
  4. Extract Reflector.FileDisassembler.dll from the zip and into to the same directory as your Reflector application.
  5. Open the Reflector application.
  6. Chose whichever version of .NET that you're currently using.
  7. Go to View > Add-Ins and click the Add... button.
  8. Double click Reflector.FileDisassembler.dll to selected it, then click Close.
  9. On Reflector's menu bar under Tools there's now an option called File Disassembler.
  10. Use File > Open to open the name of the assembly that you want to decompile. It will load in the left pane after the Microsoft assemblies.
  11. Click on the assembly's name once to select it.
  12. Go to Tools > File Disassembler to open up the file disassembler's pane. Tip: Close any other pane's that may be obstructing your view.
  13. Make sure you're okay with the Output Directory and you have your language of choice selected in Reflector. (i.e. C#, Visual Basic, etc.)
  14. Click the Generate button in the File Disassembler pane.
  15. Navigate to the directory that the DLL was decompiled to and enjoy!

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How to Run WebKit On Windows

by Justin 25. April 2008 02:05

So I've been noticing a buzz in the web dev community lately about a web browser called "WebKit. " It made some news recently when it tied with Opera as being one of the first browsers to pass the Acid 3 test.

Don't get too excited, it's just an open source version of Safari. Well, it's the rendering engine that Safari is built off of, which is apparently based on the same engine that's used by Konqueror. (Now there's a browser we haven't heard of in a while.) It seems that in order to "install" WebKit you basically have to run a script that uses an existing Safari install as its user interface. The install seems to be temporary.

Running Web Kit

  1. If you don't already have it installed, then download Safari and install it.
  2. After it's installed check out the Acid 3 test, and you'll see that Safari fails it (as of 4/24/2008).
  3. Download the latest build of WebKit.
  4. Extract the zip to your desktop.
  5. Double click the run-nightly-webkit.cmd script. The old MS-DOS console will open and will spit out a series of file updates.
  6. Safari will automatically launch, and even though it says it's Safari it's actually WebKit. Navigate to the Acid 3 test and you'll see that it passes it. Note that your original Safari install is unaffected.
 

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About the author

Justin HoltonHi, my  name is Justin. I cut my teeth learning HTML back when Netscape Navigator was still the most popular web browser. Later that inspired me to major in Computer Science at college. Today I'm a professional web developer with experience in everything from social networking application design to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I believe the Internet is the most important achievement of man since the printing press, and I'm grateful that I was born in time to see it go from obscurity to a ubiquity.

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