Month: April 2026

Placeology #11: Yes, We Have No Ghosts

The infamous Black Mausoleum in Edinburgh, ground zero for a poltergeist that has tormented as many as 3000 people. Or perhaps not. (More below)

Do you believe in ghosts? I don’t mean situations that appear spooky, like a moonlit walk in deepest October. I certainly don’t mean taking at face value the reputation of some old mansion, hotel or castle as “being haunted.” I’m referring to an actual encounter with a paranormal entity that is not only psychologically terrifying but that may also physically attack you. How about it?

Even though there has never been any scientific proof of paranormal existence, 40-45% of Americans believe in ghosts/spirits. Are people being sold an invisible product? Sometimes it seems that ghosts were invented to sell tickets to the inconclusive ghost tours that now permeate any atmospheric tourist destination. (Not the least in Salem, Mass. my hometown.) Surely, spook stories and haunted houses are so ingrained in popular culture that it makes me seem like a spoilsport to mention it, but a recent reading experience (and various online outlets) left me very puzzled and wondering if this widespread belief in the paranormal is something worse than harmless.

Welcome to the Kirkyard

First was while reading the chapter on Edinburgh’s macabre Greyfriars Kirkyard in the book “Somebody is Walking on Your Grave: My Cemetery Journeys” by Argentine author Marina Enriquez. Funerary art, with its heady blend of the beautiful and the morbid, is a fascinating subject. Enriguez, a punk rock maven and literary goth queen, has fashioned a jaunty and well-researched survey of exceptional necropolis-type resting places in North and South America and Europe and their uncanny histories.

In her Kirkyard chapter, Enriquez recounts the story of the dreaded George “Bloody” Mackenzie, who was Scotland’s Lord Advocate in 1679 when a dissident Presbyterian group called the Covenanters were defeated in a battle by the army of King Charles II. In service to the crown, Mackenzie had the captured Covenanters interred in a field next to Kirkyard cemetery in conditions so bad that it was called the world’s first concentration camp. Hundreds died and were buried in the Kirkyard, a place (not uncommon then) that held the remains of many more people than the number of headstones would indicate. Mackenzie was eventually laid to rest in a grim memorial that became known as the Black Mausoleum, probably just steps away from many of his victims.

That bit of history is interesting enough for me. But here’s where it gets weird. In 1998, a homeless man, trying to find shelter during a cold rainy night, managed to enter Mackenzie’s crypt thru a hole in the back. The floor gave way and the poor guy fell into a pile of bones, possibly a plague pit. (OK, that’s really interesting too). After another incident, where two teenagers stole a skull from the same place and barely escaped jail under Edinburgh’s ancient grave-robbing laws, the alleged Mackenzie poltergeist really went to town.

Since then, there have been hundreds of “documented” attacks on visitors, some estimates go as high as 3000. People have supposedly fainted, suffered scratches or bruises, had their hair pulled; there’s even a claim of broken fingers and at least one heart attack. Who is “documenting” these attacks? Is it the Edinburgh police department? No, their main concern vis a vis the Kirkyard is vandalism and nighttime trespassing. When I investigated, all this documenting seems to emanate from—surprise!—ghost tour guide companies.

Next to Mackenzie’s crypt is another unsettling site, a relaxed recumbent figure with a severed head next to it.

There’s no doubt that the ornate, begrimed Black Mausoleum has an aura. Marina Enriquez, who seems level-headed and naturally loves graveyards, writes:

“It’s a repulsive place… It feels like a living thing. Like it’s watching, vigilant; it has an intelligence, precarious but clearly perceptible… I feel the weight of all its stories as I looked at it.”

She then goes on to quickly relate another Kirkyard haunting, experienced by a punk-rock friend of hers from Scotland. Excuse me while I do a quick eye roll. I guess I was just lucky when I photographed the Black Mausoleum without a poltergeist gouging my eyes out.  But seriously, can’t the great big fabulous fictional world of ghosts be good enough for us? Is it possible to enjoy Dickens’ “Christmas Carol” without having to claim that the ghost of Jacob Marley is real? Maybe I’m overthinking it, but it seems a short leap from this passive acceptance of the supernatural to regressive magical thinking, distrust or disinterest in objective reality and the slide down into the cesspool of conspiracy theories, whose negative effect on political discourse is profound.

A praying statue on the other side of the wall from the Covenanters prison.

If you answered yes to the opening question, may I suggest pivoting to an interest like the esoteric field of hauntology? It concerns the residual presence of the past and its effect on present-day society—or even the essence of a promised future that is unlikely to materialize. It’s a slippery concept to be sure, but name-dropping it will be sure to impress your friends, and it even has the word “haunt” in it. There is a great big real world that stands to be understood and improved upon. It’s always better to be savvy than superstitious.

Texts and photos by Rick Ouellette

Koln 75: The Girl Behind an Epic Concert

Stylish, brash, and unusual at times, the 2025 German film “Koln ‘75” injects some life into a moribund genre: fictional features based on real-life rock stars or musical events. It tells the tale of about how teenage concert promoter Vera Brandes booked (despite a variety of obstacles) Keith’s Jarrett’s exalted “Koln Concert,” a completely improvised one-hour performance that became the biggest-selling solo jazz album in history.

After the dullish results of such entries as Bob Marley: One Love, Bruce Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere and Back to Black (the Amy Winehouse misfire, 35% on Rotten Tomatoes) the freewheeling enthusiasm of “Koln 75” is like a blinding ray of sunshine after a month of overcast days. A lot of this is due to the focus on the precocious Brandes (played by an effervescent Mala Emde) and her equally spirited friends. I will venture to say that a Keith Jarrett biopic would not have been as fun, although the brooding pianist (played by American actor John Magaro, below) is a notable presence, esp. in his scene with Brandes.

For a little background, Keith Jarrett had been doing his solo recitals across Europe, just him and his manager, travelling in that type of car you see there that is built for neither comfort nor speed. He was in physical pain, wearing a back brace, and having trouble sleeping and eating. But when Vera sees Keith perform his majestic improvisations at a West Berlin jazz fest, the teen has both a musical revelation and a more practical one. Though she was already booking local shows for the London-based Ronnie Scott Trio, Brandes was under intense pressure from her tyrannical father to give up her bohemian ways and go into the family business—dentistry.

Don’t expect much Jarrett music in “Koln 75” aside from the few minutes where a mesmerized Brandes watches the maestro in Berlin. Here is the concluding segment from the actual show.

She figures that pulling off a show at her hometown opera house by a renowned pianist who she intuitively knew was onto something special would prove she had the chops to make it in the business. That she was able to do this (later becoming a prolific producer and music researcher) despite multiple snafus gives the movie its manic energy that resembles at times both “24 Hour Party People” and fellow German film “Run Lola Run.”

Seemingly faced with the prospect of offering Jarrett the hall’s sub-standard rehearsal piano, the unusual late-night starting time (after that night’s opera performance) and Jarrett’s physical issues, “Koln 75” kicks into comic high gear as Vera chases down piano tuners and desperately tries to whip up publicity. When Jarrett refuses to play on the busted-ass baby grand, he and Vera have a climatic clash of wills, where the girl boldly stands up to him by saying “I have a lot of experience with narcissistic men.” (Probably referring to her vain and cruel father who, according to the film’s framing device, didn’t appreciate his successful daughter even into middle age).

Like a lot of other based-on-a-true-story movies, some of this may be embellishment: other accounts say that Jarrett’s ultimate decision to go on was because the recording equipment was already set up. Sure, “Koln 75” is a crowd pleaser. It is also one not afraid to show some dark edges and to wear its heart on its sleeve when showing the determination (and sometimes just dumb luck) that goes into making your own little bit of history.

Koln 75–Directed by Ido Fluk–2025–117 minutes

Available on Roku and DVD