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WORK TITLE: The Old Asylum
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S): Kent, Matt
BIRTHDATE: 1/31/1977
WEBSITE: http://www.luckycigarette.com/
CITY: Montclair
STATE: NJ
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheeler_Antabanez * http://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/entertainment/books/2016/10/30/mondays-author-halloween-treat-wheeler-antabanez-matt-kent-and-dreams/92792492/ * https://www.saggingmeniscus.com/authors/wheeler_antabanez/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born January 31, 1977; married, wife’s name Sara, children: Star Magick.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Fiction and non-fiction writer.
WRITINGS
Contributor to periodicals, including Weird NJ, which published a special issue devoted to the author’s article “Nightshade on the Passaic.”
SIDELIGHTS
Wheeler Antabanez, a lifelong resident of New Jersey, is the pseudonym of Matt Kent, a writer and novelist. Antabanez is known for his “Nightshade on the Passaic” story about his canoe explorations of the Passaic River in New Jersey, which was published in a special issue of Weird New Jersey. The article recounts Antabanez’ exploration of the river, one of the most pollluted rivers in the United States known to be contaminated with dioxins and other deadly chemicals. He also writes about the abandoned buildings along its shoreline, including an old Colt Mill gun manufacturing facility, about murders associated with the river. The article led to Antabanez joining two people from National Pubic Radio (NPR) on a trip down the Passaic River, which was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered.
Antabanez ended up getting arrested in 2000 for a post he made on his former Web site titled Welcometohell.net, a journal blog which he created in honor of an abandoned sanatorium Antabanez explored while traveling along the Passaic River. The post that caught the authorities’ attention was about the mass shooting at Colorado’s Columbine High School, posted on the one-year anniversary of the shootings. Eventually, the charges were dropped. Antabeanez shut down the Web site and instead wrote his first book, titled Gasstationthoughts: And, the Daily Journal of Wheeler Antabanez.
Antabanez is also the author of The Old Asylum: And other Stories. Illustrated with paintings by the author, the collection of stories is inspired by Antabanez’s childhood explorations of the abandoned Essex Mountain Santaorium and Overbrook Psychiatric Hospital. ““A lot of the characters in the book aren’t scared of the asylum,” Antabeanez noted in an interview with Reecca Lorenzo for the Progress Online, adding: “It’s kind of a different look because everyone wants to make it out to look like this scary place, and it is, but like anything scary, once you confront your fear and get used to it, and it’s not so scary anymore.” Antabanez went on to note that when he was ten years old he and his friends would often ride their bikes to the asylum and dare each other to go inside. Although Antabanez initially found the asylum frightening he soon became captivated with the building and its history, bolstered by the diaries he found at the site in which people wrote about the horrendous aspects of the facility, which included everything from murder and suicide to rape. “It was amazing because all this pain and suffering is imprinted on the walls of the place,” Antabanez told the Progress Online contributor Lorenzo, adding: “It really captivated me and I started writing about it and doing paintings of the buildings.” Antabanez also told Lorenzo: “Psychology and mental illness is fascinating and the way they used to treat mental patients was barbaric.”
The Old Asylum contains a wide range of stories varying from the romantic to the macabre, sometimes combined with humor. For example, in the story title “Seduction Instructions” Antabanez tells a funny yet morbid story of a young man who takes his girlfriend on a date to an abandoned asylum to watch the sunset from the asylum’s rooftop. Another story titled “Blakdrac,” features a photographer on the trail of an elusive graffiti artist. In yet another tale, a woman has gone insane after reading a a book has caused her to go insane and her lover, a doctor, is trying to treat her. The book also includes an interview with Antabanez focusing on his explorations of the asylum.
“The best place to read this well-paced book might be the beach because The Old Asylum has a way of creeping into your imagination and festering,” wrote Baristanet Web site contributor Rob Marzulli, who went on to observe: “What better antiseptic than sunlight?” A Publishers Weekly contributor called The Old Asylum “an impressive collection that defies the conventions of horror.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, April 11, 2016, review of The Old Asylum and Other Stories, p. 42.
ONLINE
Baristanet, https://baristanet.com/ (June 3, 2016), Rob Marzulli, “Haunting Horror Straight Out of the Asylum.”
Progress Online, http://www.newjerseyhills.com/the_progress/ (May 24, 2016), Rebecca Lorenzo, “West Caldwell Native Takes Literary Trip to the Asylum.”
Wheeler Antabeanez Home Page, http://www.luckycigarette.com (February 16, 2017).
Wheeler Antabanez is the author of gasstationthoughts (Barricade Books, 2001),which caused a stir when Antabanez was arrested for its contents. Despite the drama surrounding gasstationthoughts, Wheeler is probably best known for his Weird NJ special issue, Nightshade on the Passaic, which chronicles his canoe explorations of the Passaic River in New Jersey. He has a forthcoming novel, Matt and Jess Forever, and is currently finishing work on his non-fiction speedboat-adventure, Wheeler on the Passaic. The Old Asylum and other stories is his latest release.
Wheeler Antabanez is the author of gasstationthoughts (Barricade Books, 2001),which caused a stir when Antabanez was arrested for its contents. Wheeler is probably best known for his Weird NJ special issue, Nightshade on the Passaic, which chronicles his canoe explorations of the Passaic River in New Jersey. He has a forthcoming novel, Matt and Jess Forever, and is currently finishing work on his non-fiction speedboat-adventure, Wheeler on the Passaic. The Old Asylum and other stories is his latest release. http://oldasylum.com
Wheeler Antabanez
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wheeler Antabanez is the alter-ego and pen name for Montclair, New Jersey-based writer Matt Kent (born January 31, 1977). Antabanez is best known as the author of best selling special issue of Weird NJ, Nightshade on the Passaic and gasstationthoughts and The Daily Journal Of Wheeler Antabanez, published by Barricade Books.
Wheeler Antabanez
Wheelercanoe.jpg
Wheeler Antabanez on the Passaic River
Born January 31, 1977
Occupation Novelist
Nationality American
Genre Literary Fiction, Journalistic Non-Fiction
Notable works gasstation thoughts, Nightshade on the Passaic
Website
www.luckycigarette.com
Contents
1 gasstationthoughts and Arrest
2 Nightshade on the Passaic
3 Passaic River Floods
4 Further Works
5 Bibliography
6 Notes
gasstationthoughts and Arrest
Growing up in West Caldwell, New Jersey, Kent discovered the abandoned Essex Mountain Sanatorium near his parents’ house at a young age. He became obsessed with the decaying and damaged buildings and created a website in honor of the sanatorium. The site, ‘welcometohell.net’, later became the online home of Kent’s developing alter ego, Wheeler Antabanez.
On April 19, 2000 Kent was arrested in the lead up to the first anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre for his alter ego’s writings about the school shooting on welcometohell.[1]
The charges were eventually dropped and Kent took welcometohell offline, transforming Antabanez’s daily journal into a book. “gasstationthoughts and the daily journal of wheeler antabanez” was published by Barricade Books, the controversial publisher of The Anarchist Cookbook and The Turner Diaries.[2]
Nightshade on the Passaic
For two years, Antabanez traveled up and down the Passaic River, occasionally with his daughter, Star, as first mate, exploring abandoned buildings on its shores as well as the river itself. The Passaic is one of the most polluted waterways in the US and is home to the world’s largest collection of the deadly chemicals, dioxins.
Seeking out the worst possible places, Antabanez chronicles his exploration of abandoned buildings in Paterson, New Jersey, such as the old Colt Mill, which made approximately 5,000 firearms between 1836 and 1841.[3] In addition to the river and the decaying structures that surround it, he also researched murders that involved the Passaic River, including the horrific case of Jonathan Zarate who attempted to dump the mutilated body of his 16-year-old neighbor in the river, but was thwarted by a police officer who happened to pass by at the time.[4]
The 78-page magazine also follows Antabanez as he explores homeless haunts along the river’s shore as well as the infamous “Buttonwoods” neighborhood in Lincoln Park, New Jersey.
Nightshade on the Passaic was released as a special issue of Weird NJ magazine in July 2008.
The Passaic River continues to be full of unusual stories, including the discovery of a child’s body that had been taken from a grave in Connecticut as part of a suspected Palo Mayombe ritual. With no one more familiar with its macabre history, Wheeler serves as an expert to curious reporters interested in the river.[5]
In September 2010, Wheeler co-hosted a live broadcast from the last working boat yard on the Passaic for Billy Jam's Put the Needle on the Record show on WFMU. Guests included WMFU's X-Ray Burns and Mark and Mark from Weird NJ.[6]
Wheeler's adventures on the Passaic River caught the eye of NPR in late 2010. National Public Radio sent a two-person crew to NJ to travel the Passaic River and its shoreline with Wheeler as their guide. The resulting stories and interviews turned into a feature on All Things Considered with a radio segment, written article and video.[7]
Passaic River Floods
The Passaic River overran its banks in the spring of 2010 and again in 2011. For both floods, Wheeler was on-site to capture the destruction. In March 2010 Wheeler visited the flood zone near Willowbrook Mall and talked with those affected.[8] Almost exactly a year later, the neighborhoods surrounding the river flooded again. Wheeler traveled the streets by canoe and followed the flood for seven days to create a short documentary, Following the Flood.[9] Wheeler states in the video that he is currently filming a movie, Wheeler on the Passaic.
Further Works
In addition to his published works, Wheeler has an unpublished novel, Matt & Jess Forever. The story follows a young couple through drugs, murder and an intense love and is available online in its entirety.
In March 2009, Wheeler returned to his roots writing online and began a photo-based novella, Lucky Cigarette. With a new photo and entry each day, the website is a combination of Wheeler’s skills as a photographer/videographer as well as novelist.
Wheeler is currently seeking a publishing deal for Matt & Jess Forever, Lucky Cigarette and a collection of short stories.
In early 2010, Wheeler uncovered writings from his youth and added them to Lucky Cigarette. Even in his childhood writings, it is clear to see the start of Wheeler's style and his flair for storytelling.
Bibliography
gasstationthoughts (2001)
Nightshade on the Passaic (2008)
[1] The Old Asylum and other stories (2016)
[2] Full list of Wheeler's articles and books
LC control no.: no2016084009
Descriptive conventions:
rda
LC classification: PS3601.N55546
Personal name heading:
Antabanez, Wheeler, 1977-
See also: Kent, Matt, 1977-
Associated place: West Caldwell (N.J.)
Located: Montclair (N.J.)
Birth date: 1977-01-21
Found in: The old asylum and other stories, 2016: title page (Wheeler
Antabanez) page 133 (author of gasstationthoughts and
Nightshade on the Passaic; a life-long New Jersey
resident)
Wheeler Antabanez, Wikipedia, viewed June 13, 2016 via WWW
(alter-ego and pen name for Montclair, New Jersey-based
writer Matt Kent; born January 21, 1977; author of
Nightshade on the Passaic and Gasstationthoughts and The
Daily Journal Of Wheeler Antabanez; grew up in West
Caldwell, New Jersey)
OCLC, June 13, 2016 (access point: Antabanez, Wheeler;
Kent, Matt; usage: Wheeler Antabanez; Matt Kent)
Associated language:
eng
================================================================================
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS AUTHORITIES
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20540
Questions? Contact: ils@loc.gov
LC control no.: no2016084153
Descriptive conventions:
rda
LC classification: PS3601.N55546
Personal name heading:
Kent, Matt, 1977-
See also: Antabanez, Wheeler, 1977-
Associated place: West Caldwell (N.J.)
Located: Montclair (N.J.)
Birth date: 1977-01-21
Special note: Formerly on undifferentiated name reord: n 2001026881
Found in: Gasstationthoughts and the daily journal of Wheeler
Antabanez, 2001: CIP t.p. (Matt Kent)
The old asylum and other stories, 2016: title page (Wheeler
Antabanez) page 133 (author of gasstationthoughts and
Nightshade on the Passaic; a life-long New Jersey
resident)
Wheeler Antabanez, Wikipedia, viewed June 13, 2016 via WWW
(alter-ego and pen name for Montclair, New Jersey-based
writer Matt Kent; born January 21, 1977; author of
Nightshade on the Passaic and Gasstationthoughts and The
Daily Journal Of Wheeler Antabanez; grew up in West
Caldwell, New Jersey)
OCLC, June 13, 2016 (access point: Antabanez, Wheeler;
Kent, Matt; usage: Wheeler Antabanez; Matt Kent)
Associated language:
eng
================================================================================
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS AUTHORITIES
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20540
Questions? Contact: ils@loc.gov
West Caldwell native takes literary trip to the asylum
By REBECCA LORENZO Staff Writer May 24, 2016 0
Wheeler Antabanez publishes 'The Old Asylum: And Other Stories'
West Caldwell native Wheeler Antabanez flashes his new book, “The Old Asylum,” which he read from at the Caldwell Library on Thursday, Oct. 6.
Wheeler Antabanez documents demolition of Overbrook Hospital
Wheeler Antabanez documented the demolition of Overbrook Psychiatric Hospital in a series of photos he took, titled “R.I.P. Overbrook,” which can be viewed on his website, www.LuckyCigarette.com.
Overbrook Psychiatric Hospital captured in time
Wheeler Antabanez features a series of Overbrook Hospital photos on his website, www.LuckyCigarette.com.
Wheeler Antabanez and his artwork
“The Old Asylum: And Other Stories” author Wheeler Antabanez stands beside his artwork, which can be seen dispersed throughout his book.
WEST CALDWELL TWP. – Former resident and Weird NJ writer Wheeler Antabanez depicts his bone-chilling childhood explorations of the long-abandoned Essex Mountain Sanatorium and Overbrook Psychiatric Hospital, in his book “The Old Asylum: And Other Stories,” released on Wednesday, June 1.
The book is a series of original fictional short stories, accompanied by 18 of his original artworks inspired by his experiences.
In addition to the stories, the book is topped off with a non-fiction interview about Wheeler’s experiences exploring Overbrook and the Sanatorium on the Hilltop. The interview provides insight into the author’s qualifications as an asylum historian and recounts the urban legends surrounding the abandoned hospitals.
While the book will not officially release in book stores until Wednesday, June 1, “Old Asylum,” published by Sagging Meniscus Press in Montclair, is currently available for $17.96 in paperback on Amazon.com, and is free-to-read for Kindle Fire members.
According to Antabanez, the book was written as more of a fun book rather than with a scarier tome.
“A lot of the characters in the book aren’t scared of the asylum,” said Antabanez. “It’s kind of a different look because everyone wants to make it out to look like this scary place, and it is, but like anything scary, once you confront your fear and get used to it, and it’s not so scary anymore.”
According to the description in WeirdNJ.com, Overbrook Hospital “was laid out at the bottom of a hill atop which sat the Mountain Sanatorium, a facility used at various times to treat tuberculosis patients, wayward children, and drug abusers. These two facilities, and the many abandoned buildings associated with them, became Essex County’s most legendary location, home to escaped lunatics, troubled ghosts, and roving gangs of ne’er do wells.”
Antabanez has had first-hand conditioning against the fear of the Asylum and Sanitorium. At just 10-years-old, Antabanez and his friends frequently rode their bikes up to the hospital on the hilltop, daring each other to enter.
“They were scary, but we would go in anyway,” said Antabanez. “We got to know the place and then they stopped being so scary and we kind of owned the place.”
Smashed windows, crumbling walls, decrepit isolation rooms and spray-painted walls gave a haunted feel to the hospitals, which were intimidating at first until Antabanez “grew fondly of them,” he said. Such sights would become the subjects and references in his works for “Old Asylum.”
“It was amazing because all this pain and suffering is imprinted on the walls of the place,” said Antabanez. “It really captivated me and I started writing about it and doing paintings of the buildings.”
The subject matter really took hold of Antabanez.
“Psychology and mental illness is fascinating and the way they used to treat mental patients was barbaric,” he said.
Such patient horror stories begin with geriatric patients and victims of “Shell-Shock,” now known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), who were among a surplus population that over-crowded the hospitals, which were often understaffed.
Under-staffing at Overbrook made it notorious for patient negligence, who were sometimes discovered talking to themselves and covered in feces in locked rooms by visiting loved ones. In addition, Electro-Shock Therapy was tested in its primitive state on patients, resulting in serious injury or death.
“One time in 1917, the boilers lost heat and 24 patients froze to death in their cells,” Antabanez said.
In the past, Overbrook visitors could read patient records, which were left behind in the building once it was no longer in use.
“I found diaries of people on the ward talking about murders, rapes and suicides,” said Antabanez. “The evidence is there, and there’s even a four-door morgue in Overbrook.”
In addition to his experiences at the facilities, Antabanez said several characters are based on old friends and girlfriends, and includes his former adventures, such as “spray-painting, going up there drinking beer on the roof before we were supposed to be drinking beer,” and other fun experiences.
His favorite work in the book is the cover-titled story, “The Old Asylum,” about a couple who visit the asylum, hangs out on the roof and has their first child together.
“It just captures the nostalgia of what it was like when I was a kid hanging out there,” he said.
According to Antabanez, he was approached by a publisher last year who heard his name through the grapevine, and was interested in several short stories he had sent to them.
For the past 10 years, Antabanez has written for Weird NJ, a company which highlights haunted locations, sights and other oddities across the state in books and on their website.
He was approached by them after they viewed his former website, WelcomeToHell.com, about Mountain Sanitorium, and published a special issue, “Nightshade on The Passaic”, about his adventures canoeing on the Passaic River. Antabanez has been writing for them ever since.
“They are great people and have been supporting me for the past decade,” he said.
Currently, Antabanez has several other works in-the-making, including a non-fiction adventure story about his two-year experience speed-boating on the Passaic River, as well as a novel.
Today, Antabanez lives in Montclair with his wife, Sara, who joins him in his adventures in his speedboats, and with whom he shares her love of animals, feral cats and dogs, which they help in their spare time.
Antabanez has brought his love of the macabre to adulthood, and enjoys taking pictures of the on-going demolition at Overbrook several times a week. The demolishing of facility, which has occupied 325 acres of land since its founding in 1896, was announced early 2013.
“It’s a coincidence that my book came out at the same time that they’re destroying the place,” he said. “I’ll go by and snap a few pictures just to catalog and commemorate it.”
Fear of such places is natural but can be overcome with exposure, according to Antabanez.
“When I walk through those hallways, it’s not a big deal for me, but other people are cowering and shaking. It’s all a matter of getting used to it, and really love it so it doesn’t scare me so much.”
For more information on Antabanez, and to view his photography, art, writing and other media, visit www.LuckyCigarette.com.
The Old Asylum and Other Stories
Publishers Weekly. 263.15 (Apr. 11, 2016): p42.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Old Asylum and Other Stories
Wheeler Antabanez. Sagging Meniscus, $19.95 trade paper (150p) ISBN 978-1944697-01-3
Antabanez, an avid explorer of abandoned locales in New Jersey, brings his explorations to life in this collection of nine short stories. Each story is illustrated by the author's artwork, which captures the essence of the places he explores. Informed by this backdrop, each vignette has its own flavor, veering among the romantic, the humorous, and the. macabre. "Blakdrac" chronicles the weirdness in the everyday as a photographer pursues a mysterious graffiti artist. "Seduction Instructions" features the attempts of a young man, pulled in by the lure of the titular asylum, to show his girlfriend a uniquely good time, with hilarious and morbid results. In "Blizzard Beast," which is Lovecraftian in its scope, a family's attempts to care for a stray cat go utterly awry. Antabanez writes with a wry and witty voice that dips into tones of compelling intensity. Taking cues from the abandoned buildings that inspire him, Antabanez, reveling in the fear of the unknown, has created an impressive collection that defies the conventions of horror. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Old Asylum and Other Stories." Publishers Weekly, 11 Apr. 2016, p. 42. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA449662969&it=r&asid=105bc1dfb5a9dc41256fb8f152c42f83. Accessed 28 Jan. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A449662969
Haunting Horror Straight Out of the Asylum
BY Rob Marzulli | FRIDAY, JUN 03, 2016 12:30PM
Baristanet readers know him as an expert on the Passaic River, but the imagination of Wheeler Antabanez runs deeper and darker than that venerable, yet poisoned river. His new book The Old Asylum And Other Stories, published by Sagging Meniscus, is populated by a mischievous teenage couple on the edge of falling in love, a boy obsessed with Halloween, an otherworldly graffiti artist and a doctor tormented by treating his lover who has gone insane from reading a book.
All of these stories share another dark, defiled New Jersey institution–the Overbrook Mental Hospital and the abandoned Tuberculosis Sanatorium that once stood on the Hilltop property in Cedar Grove. Antabanez gets his inspiration from his past–as a youth he played in the complex’s abandoned, crumbling buildings.
Antabanez, a veteran Weird NJ correspondent shows he has the chops to spin haunting, creepy yarns with hints of Stephen King and Flannery O’Connor. There are nine short offerings in The Old Asylum And Other Stories. You’ll encounter more unsettling horror in the 18 portraits of the Overbrook Sanitarium, painted by Antabanez and captioned with snippets of recollections from former employees and staff members, news clips and inmate letters. The book concludes with an interview of Antabanez recalling how he used to troll the grounds of the sanitarium with his friends.
“My favorite tale in the book is the title story The Old Asylum.” says Antabanez. “It’s about a high school couple who go up to the abandoned hospital and sit on the roof to watch the sunset. It’s the story I reread the most because it captures the mood of both the Essex Mountain Sanatorium and Overbrook. There was a certain spooky magic on the Hilltop that has been lost forever, but I can still revisit those feelings I had as a child every time I pick up the book.”
The best place to read this well-paced book might be the beach because The Old Asylum has a way of creeping into your imagination and festering. What better antiseptic than sunlight?
Overbrook Asylum was built in 1896 occupying 325 acres in what is now Cedar Grove. The complex was huge and had a farm, which produced most of the food eaten at the hospital, as well as its own train stop, bakery, firehouse and even a semi-professional baseball team. In addition to the mental hospital the complex also housed the Mountain Sanatorium originally used to care for tuberculosis patients and later used to treat wayward children and drug abusers. The introduction of psychological medications in the 1960s and 70s drastically changed how mental health was treated and marked the beginning of the end for Overbrook. As patient populations diminished, the huge complex scaled back in the late twentieth century, abandoning many of its buildings until the hospital finally closed in 2007. To learn more, check out this Weird NJ article.
530 overbrook_asylum_roof_off_5
Demolition of the complex, which began in 2002, is reaching its conclusion as the old hospital buildings come down to make way for housing developments. (Remember Steven Spielberg’s 1982 Poltergeist?) For a neat documentary of the hospital click here. See some great images of the demolition by clicking here