Current mood:	pleased
Current music:	California Dreamin'

California Adventures
Been in Southern California (primarily Los Angeles) for a couple of weeks now. Besides the usual site-seeing (loved Knotts Berry Farm!) I've been researching local paranormal phenomena. Too bad I got here after the sun came back. Apparently LA was abounding with various supernatural creatures during that period, but the sudden return of sunlight supposedly caused a large number of them to spontaneously combust, and the rest are now apparently laying low.

I did try to make contact with a man I know out here, Reginald Hawley, who runs a respected Occult Book Store. (When I was running Ray's Occult Books he used to help me fill special orders). Unfortunately Reg has left town for an indefinite period. I spoke to one of his neighbors and was told he was assaulted in his store recently and decided an extended trip to South America was in order. Further, I was told that the perpetrator of the attack was a well-known local vampire.

Which brings me to my main findings so far: while on the east coast most supernatural occurances involve ectoplasmic beings, i.e. ghosts, poltergeists, various vaporous presences and disembodied extradimensioal entities, it seems that on the west coast they deal with more coporeal paranormal threats. There seems to be a healthy (best word?) population of vampires, werewolves, demons, occasional robots and a few things that even I never heard about. But very few ghosts, and the ones they have seem rather benign, even friendly. One friendly person told me the local vampires tend to scare away the ghosts, but that doesn't match the known habits of homo spiritus. My guess is that there's some overarching supernatural influence in this area that encourages one type of paranormal activity over another, and redistributes the available ectoplasm accordingly. But that's only a theory -- more research is needed.

I've considered making contact with some of the local paranormal defense services (depressing low-tech outfits), but a referral to a group called "Angel Investigations" didn't work out. I called for an appointment, but someone who sounded like a surly teenager told me they were "...busy right now, so get lost." Too bad, as the gentleman who referred me (a successful software developer who sold us some customized anti-Virus software awhile back to rid our mainframe of possession by Trigar the Unmentionable) was quite prolific in his praise of them. Maybe I'll try again later.

I've also taken to monitoring local demon activity through the internet. Another difference between the east coast and the west is that I haven't noticed supernatural entities on the east coast being considerate enough to keep online records of their actions. I've made a few contacts with some of the local dark lords, but they seem unimpressed by my reputation. Oh well, I am pretty far from home...

Anyway, although my stated goal for this trip was simple research, in truth I was thinking of using my findings to propose to the guys that we open a branch office out here. I know Pete's fond of L.A. (he loved it when he got to come out and serve as the technical advisor on the remake of "House on Haunted Hill", although *I* thought he needed to spend more time working on the script and less at nightculbs), and Egon would appreciate the nearness to Silicon Valley. But the type of supernatural menaces common to Southern California are so different from what we're used to dealing with, it would mean major changes in our methodology. Still, the idea bears further scrutiny -- if we hired the right people with the proper experience, we could probably turn a tidy profit. I've already noticed a young man who, with the proper education, could make a career in the paranormal defense industry. True, he's currently "employed" (if you can call it that) at cooking for a house full of teenaged girls and making amateur documentaries, but I know potential when I see it.

In conclusion, I've decided I've seen enough of Los Angeles for now. I think I'm going to drive up to Sunnydale and look into reports of those eyeless cultists...not to mention those rumors of a "hellmouth" in that area. No one knows better than myself just how fascinating dimensional portals into infernal planes of existence are! And if all goes well, maybe I'll move on to San Francisco to check out the Wiccan culture up there. Overall, it's been a great trip so far!

Oh, and that "devil" the guys were chasing around Hell's Kitchen? Turned out to be a man in a costume. Extremely limber, but otherwise quite mortal. Heh.