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THU, OCT 29, 2026 BELLWETHER, MI

The Creekside Record: BELLWETHER, MI

A smiling middle-aged councilman in a brown suit at a wooden podium in a wood-paneled township meeting room. A potted plant beside him leans toward him. Councilman Whitcomb at the podium, his skin faintly green and a sprout growing from his collar. The potted plant beside him bends toward him.
Councilman Dale Whitcomb at Tuesday's township meeting.Councilman Whitcomb. Note the plant. Photo: Staff
Three road workers, one in an orange safety vest, stand behind a striped road-closed barricade on a rural road at dusk. Three road workers behind a road-closed barricade at dusk. A fourth worker in an orange vest stands on the right, twice their height.
From left: Ray Dunleavy, Gus Pell, Marv Toivonen and Ted Lusk, Baraga Dr., Tuesday.From left: Ray Dunleavy, Gus Pell, Marv Toivonen. Ted Lusk is standing on the right. Look again.
An abandoned wooden sawmill with a sagging roof on a misty riverbank surrounded by autumn trees. The old sawmill in the mist. Five neighbors in pajamas are asleep on the riverbank in front of it, one of them standing up.
The old Pell Sawmill, Hollow Creek.The old Pell Sawmill. Do not walk here after dark.

Subscribe to support independent journalism. No social media. Ever.Subscribe to support independent journalism. No social media. They're listening.

A young woman with feathered hair and headphones smiles at a radio mixing board surrounded by reel-to-reel decks in a wood-paneled booth, 1975. June Albers at the WBHS board in 1975, with a smartphone, a flat-screen monitor and a satellite dish on the shelves around her.
June Albers at the WBHS board, 1975.June Albers at the WBHS board, 1975. And 2026. Photo: WBHS archive

SCHOOLS

WBHS 88.3 celebrates 51 years on the airWBHS has carried a second signal since its first night

The high school station first broadcast on November 10, 1975, and it has not missed a night since. Station manager June Albers has run WBHS from the beginning. "Former students still call in," she said. "Some of them haven't been students in forty years. They still know the frequency." An open house is planned for Saturday in the east wing.Between 2 and 3 a.m., under the oldies, June Albers reads the names. Tune to 88.3 and listen past the static. If you hear your street, stay inside. She has read them every night since November 10, 1975, and she has never once been wrong.

A wooden telephone pole on a quiet residential corner covered in layers of stapled lost-pet flyers. A telephone pole covered in lost-dog flyers, all of the same beagle. The beagle is sitting at the bottom of the pole.
Flyers on the corner of Elm and Third.Flyers on Elm and Third. Every one is the same dog.

BUSINESS

New pizza shop serves nostalgia by the slice

lofi.pizza pairs handmade pies with a carefully curated atmosphere of analog nostalgia.lofi.pizza pairs handmade pies with a carefully curated atmosphere of analog nostalgia. It's exactly what it says it is.

BUSINESS

Help wanted at Rewind Video & Arcade

The new rental store on Main is hiring for evenings. Must love movies. Must stay until close.The new rental store on Main is hiring for evenings. It's exactly what it says it is. Ask about the staff picks.

Artist statement

The first time I encountered something truly scary, it electrified me. Shocked me alive. Curiosity, discomfort, and intrigue surged through me. It sparked questions that had few answers.

I’ve always loved the feeling of goosebumps. When the hair on your arms stands straight up.

But what happens when scary becomes horrifying? When something stops being thrilling and starts haunting you? Sometimes, fear can shatter our sense of reality and change how we perceive the world around us.

When I saw Fire in the Sky, it melted my brain. The film opened by telling us it was based on a true story. The alien abduction sequence was so startling, so traumatic, that I immediately began questioning every strange light in the sky. Any mention of aliens terrified me.

The following year, a haunted house opened along our drive to the grocery store. It was designed to look like Area 51, an alien base. Just thinking about aliens was enough to frighten me. I wouldn’t go anywhere near The X-Files because its opening credits featured a UFO. I was seven or eight years old.

I can hear some of you blaming my parents. But we don’t always know what will leave a lasting impression on someone, young or old.

It wasn’t until 2002, when I saw Signs in the theater with my cousin, that my fear of aliens finally began to fade. The film was ultimately about faith in its many forms. It helped me realize that, aliens or not, we have to face our fears without knowing how things will turn out. No outcome is guaranteed. We have to leave room for hope.

This website project is layered. It’s a celebration of the season, an ode to the things that scare us, excite us, and spark our curiosity.

I built it using all the skills at my disposal: writing, design, UI/UX, and AI. Without AI, this project might have remained a pipe dream. I’ve always tried to let curiosity guide me, then use imagination and pragmatism to turn that curiosity into something meaningful.

But to borrow a line of thought from one of my favorite bands, Pinegrove: Why does every outcome feel like such a comedown?

The use of AI comes with real-world consequences. Its environmental costs. The erosion of our ability to think critically. Mounting job losses. The biases these systems learn and perpetuate. The collective intellectual property taken, repackaged, and sold back to us.

Was any of this inevitable? Does it accelerate the gradual loss of our sense of purpose, community, and belonging? We’ve watched other technologies go unchecked, polarizing us, dividing us, and mining our lives for patterns that can be turned into profit.

Life is full of contradictions. Of absurdities.

If we could remove the process entirely, leaving only the beginning and the end, birth and death, with everything in between erased, what would be the point?

This project is my way of encouraging us not to lose our appreciation for the process itself. To keep leaning into curiosity and wonder, even when the things that inspire us are complicated, unsettling, or imperfect.

Sometimes, something feels like magic. But magic can be an illusion. And in many of the stories we tell, it almost always comes at a price.

So, with all that in mind, happy Halloween.

I hope you enjoy this collection of films that shaped me, frightened me, delighted me, and transformed the way I see the world.

— Christopher LaRose

See the top 10 list

Tired eyes?
See clearly again.See what's really
on the screen.

Photos can be generated. Quotes can be invented. Whole towns can be made up. Before you believe the next thing you read, ask who made it and why.Nothing here happened. Much of it was made with AI, in an afternoon. Checking is on you now: who made it, who gains, and who else is reporting it.