“Ghost Lab,” a new program on Discovery, premiered tonight – these guys have interesting theories and a lot of cool gadgets. I especially like their “era cues,” which we do ourselves sometimes (playing music popular at Bull Moose party rallies on the piano in the Florentine Ballroom to see if it generates any activity is a good example of the technique). On an upcoming episode, they’ll be investigating Old Town Tatu, which we’ve been investigating for about three years now (it’s on the second episode of our podcast and featured prominently in Your Neighborhood Gives Me the Creeps) – I understand they analyze the EVP picked up on my microphone there.

I don’t necessarily agree with all of their techniques or ideas or anything (they seem awfully quick to believe that a place is actually haunted, and don’t always seem that comfortable with the scientific stuff, but this could always be just the way Discovery edits it), but they strike me as being a bit less hokey than most ghost shows out there – and seeming anything BUT hokey in an episode where you look for the ghost of Elvis is no easy task! In any case, they look like they’re having fun, which makes it fun to watch – certainly more fun to watch than those awful shows where they pretend to be possessed and scream every time they hear a tapping noise (if you’re that scared of a tapping noise, ghost hunting is probably not the profession for you). These guys also didn’t waste their time with orbs, which is always a plus.

Anyway, we’ve used “era cues” on occasion. I wouldn’t say I’m a proponent of the theory, but it’s one of those things you can try that certainly can’t hurt! I certainly prefer playing period music to saying “do any spirits here have a message for me” or challenging ghosts to a fistfight.