Tuesday, January 29, 2008

My responses to Theorris's 'I love..." challenge...

Theorris has tagged me to write what I love. Looking at the other responses, there are 3 things, so that is what I'll do to, although narrowing it down to 3 is difficult, and these things should be seen as randomly chosen from an overflowing basket of things i love.

1. Old ladies

I love them for the irony of their apparent vulnerability vs. their strength. I love the way their houses smell, like Lux soap, and bread. I love their aesthetic sense, their brooches, 'set' hair, and general formality. I love that they were around when the word 'motoring' was used. I love that they outlive everyone. Old ladies are safety incarnate.

2. Smells

I love certain smells: sheets that have been in the linen closet for years, that first rich whiff of a flowershop after walking in, a very old garage, basements, and the smell of water from a hose, and the smell of water on a very warm sidewalk. Unusual, uncommon flower scents: linden, lily of the valley, tuberose. I love the smell of Stewarts Key Lime soda--I stick my nose in the bottle after it's all gone, and at the time, I can say it is the best smell that has ever been on the planet. There's a certain laundry smell that some people carry, that I still haven't figured out what product it is. I love the smell of certain books, some have it, some don't. My mom used to let me order whatever and however many books I wanted from those Scholastic school book magazines, and I would order so many they would come in my own box. I used to wait until I got home to open it, and take it in my room, so I could enjoy the smell that would puff out of that box alone, without looking like a goober. I love Grocery store smell, especially Dillons grocery store, in Topeka, Ks. I love the smell of the dirt in my houseplants that have been makeshift incense holders for years--there's the natural good dirt smell, mingled with an absorbed perfume. I could go on and on....

number 3 will have to come a bit later...

Okay, 3. Potatoes.

Monday, January 28, 2008

C2C photo...

Today at Coast to Coast, there's an interesting photo of an engraving. the sender claims it was taken 'deep in the woods by an old railroad track' in Independence, MO. The script definitely looks runic, but the characters are not very easily identifiable.

There's a possibility that the characters may just have a runic appearance, due to the tool that was used to carve them. Obviously, straight lines are easier to impress than curved. It may be a regular alphabet.

Independence Missouri has quite an occult history, and is a center of all kinds of Mormon folklore. According to legend, it is the antideluvian Garden of Eden. Independence is the headquarters of the Reorganized LDS church, sporting their odd-looking temple. It is also somewhat of a spiritual battleground, there's legends about the LDS church taking over the land at some future point, and it is supposed to be Christ's headquarters from which he will rule after the second coming. I remember people saying that when the temple gets built (it's been there for years now) the time will be close at hand, and then when 'The Church' takes over, it will be any minute for his return.

Nearby is the strange land Adam-ondi-Ahman. I have been there, and it was a very odd feeling. Kind of unsettling, both good and bad. There is a stone slab, and there's a legend it was the altar of Adam and Eve. Rather impossible, from all angles. I have a picture of myself doing a backbend on it somewhere.

Perhaps this inscription was carved by the archangel Michael himself (Adam, according to the doctrine. at least i think that's doctrine. I'm too lazy to look it up this morning, and it feels like tornado weather, so I'm unsettled. Please feel free to correct any mo-mis-info I have here--I hate that.)

Here is a link to the Adam Ondi Ahman Church Hymn...

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Love your hair, hope it wins!



...perhaps the best song ever. I'm sure few would agree. Also, check out P.M.'s boots (ha) and and the guitar/bass whatever guy at about 3:00--so 80s, love that.

...bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills, UFO debunking skills...

I just came across something unbelievable; while searching for a Coast to Coast to listen to while I pack some boxes, I clicked on the page for skeptic Joe Nickell's appearance. Listed are some of his cases he has debunked, and among them is: A 100–ft. UFO in Salt Lake City turned out to be a misidentified remote controlled 30-ft. blimp.

Skeppta, PLEASE!!!

I don't even know where to start on this one. But, if this is exemplary of his debunking case work skills, well, then Mr. Nickell's work is without a doubt at a base remedial level. First of all, there was never, ever any *real* thinking that the object was a "UFO" in the sense that it was anything more than a yet-to-be-identified terrestrial craft. Second, the object was identified within a few hours of its main-reported sightings. There were reports on the local news (and even made the national news too) within hours of finding out what the object was, with the guy who made the blimp.

I haven't listened to Joe yet, but how in the world could he even take credit for investigating and debunking this? There was nothing to debunk anyway.

So--we actually saw this thing, and took some video. I'll see if I can post it here. You can tell by our reactions, and watching the thing itself, there's no way anyone in their right mind would mistake this for an extraterrestrial craft, and it has little in common with other UFO sightings.

Note that in the intro on the video, I wrote "days later it was reprted.." It's not that it took days to discover what the object was--it's that the main sightings were days later. The news said the June 12th sightings were 'unverified.' My son and I also had seen this thing many months before this sighting, while in this same parking lot. I tried following it, but couldn't see it again, and there were no reports in the news then. There were no reports at all, until an apparently mass sighting, where it drifted across the valley out of control a couple days after this video. It origins were almost instantly revealed. Way to go Joe!



"It's, like, METAL.." I can be such a valley girl.

Friday, January 25, 2008

My Men in Black visit last night part 3

I went to the post office tonight, but there were a bunch of people training, and the regular woman I usually talk to wasn't there, so I'll have to ask her about my late night 'mailman' experience next time.

Since I wrote about the Triangle survey experience, I've been thinking about some other strange events I've had over the years. There's one that particularly bothers me, and it too, has the feel of a psych/social experiment. when this happened, I literally wondered if we were being filmed for our responses.

Probably about 9 or 10 years ago, my sister came over to my apartment on a saturady to take my son out to a little park by LDS hospital--it was just a couple blocks from my place. I stayed home, having to wait for maintenence guys to come over to fix god knows what at our crumbling, decayed, formerly-glamorous-a-century-ago, apartment. I'm sure it was the ceiling caving in, or fire shooting out of the floor, or some other common occurence.

Whatever it was, I was extremely stressed out over it, plus, I was in the final stages of a very complicated divorce. Aside from all that, I absolutely dreaded having to have workers come to my place. My old landlord would hire the cheapest people he could find. I could write a book about my experiences with these weirdos during the 10 years I lived in that building. The guys arrived--with a gigantic, spastic labrador retriever in tow. I was mortified. I cannot stand any form of unrestrained, random chaos in my environment--and I cannot stand labs. I know I probably made a few enemies with that statement, as labs are the pretty much Official State Dog of Utah. They're pretty much just giant cocker spaniels, and I never saw the point of those either.

Rather than argue or freak out about the dog, or have to watch the home invasion, I decided the best thing I could do was just remove myself from the situation. I intened to go to the library, but drove by the park and saw my sister and son, so I stopped. I sat with my sister on the bench, and started telling her about the dog, and how I was stressed, etc. So, my son is playing in the sand, and we're sitting on this bench facing each other talking, at a normal, 'conversational' distance apart, with ample space between us. We're obviously engrossed in some emotional stuff--I actually recall feeling like I was going to break into tears.

Any normal person approaching this scene would immediately recognize it as intimate and personal, and respect a proper distance and manner. And it's not like it was a 'scene' at all--the conversation was in an almost whisper, as my son, who was about 4, was present. And the park was empty, as usual.

But this woman approaches, carrying a small brown lunch bag. We're still deep in conversation, and as she gets closer, I'm thinking she is walking right toward us, and is going to ask us directions somewhere, or for the time, or something. No--she stands next to me, and says "can I sit here?" and without waiting for an answer, sits right down between my sister and I! We are just sitting there with our mouths agape in horror, and it's like a scene from Candid Camera; completely oblivious to us, she places the little paper bag on her lap, unfolds it, removes an apple, and starts munching it, looking around, surveying the park with a little grin, like she's totally alone.

It was so bizarre. I wish now I hadn't been in a funk, and just addressed the situation with her, to see what she'd have said--but we just kind of got up and my sister or I said something sarcastic but benign, and we separately departed. I kind of forgot about all this, so I'll have to ask my sister to recount the story to see what her take on it was.

The thing that really makes it weirder is--a couple years later, my son and I were walking home from the sweet branch aves library, and this same woman is on the sidewalk walking toward us. I recognized her even at a distance immediately--she is extremely thin (anorexia-thin) and has very big blonde hair. I'm sure it's a wig. She's actually kind of pretty--she looks just like this woman (can't remember her name) that used to be a game show fixture in the 70s. I'll search for her name and update (maybe with that description someone living in the aves will recognize her...)

Anyway, she's walking toward us, and I was hoping she wouldn't say anything or do anything weird. Well, no such luck. With every step she took, there was this *LOUD* noise--it's kind of hard to describe, but it was the sound of air being squeezed out of a bag. Actually, it's the sound of a bellows. But it was so loud, and even though it swooshed in time with every step she took, it did not seem to be originating with her feet at all, but surrounding her entire body. She didn't seem to be fitted with any kind of medical device, and I can't even imagine what kind of device would make such a noise anyway. It really seemed to be emitting from her entire body--like that's just the sound she makes when she walks.

Now the name of that game show celebrity is bugging me. She was known for her big boobs and blonde hair, and childlike, bubbly, wacky voice. I think her name was "sandy" something...
I'm sure she was on crap like that atre johnson show and whatnot. I'll find it.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

My Men in Black Visit last night..part 2

Last night I was sitting on my couch talking to Steve on the phone. I was facing my front door, which has a window covered by a curtain. It's opaque of course, but not really heavy, so I can see carlights and stuff through it. For probably a full minute or so, I noticed what looked like a headlight. This wasn't weird at all...I'm almost in the corner on the block, so there's an intersectionw/ a stop sign that cars stop at. The light remained for about a minute as I said, and then, it starts kind of bouncing around all over the place and getting much larger. I quickly realized the light was right in from of my door, and I could see a large man's figure too.

It was a little alarming--he just seemed to be standing there moving the light around--there was no knock, no noise, nothing. For some reason, I had the feeling it was a policeman with a maglite, looking around for my house numbers to see if he was in the right place. (the house numbers are in a weird place, etched into a small window.)

I decided to flip the curtain to see who/what the hell was there and happening. There was a young, dark haired, tall guy in a dark uniform with some kind of insignia on his jacket, and a helmet with a flashlight--like mining or spelunking gear. He was just standing there waiting, holding some papers. He had not knocked, or rang the doorbell. How long would he have patiently waited there for someone to coincidentally open the door? What are the chances that i would even be sitting there looking out the window to notice him? It was almost 10:00 at night!

So, still thinking it was some kind of poice person or utility worker or something, I opened the door, and he hands me--my mail. I said "what's this?" (kind of meaning what the f*#% is going on in general) and he just says, like I'm so dense, "It's your *MAIL*"

What the hell?

Also, remember that I saw that headlight (which turns out to be the headlamp on his helmet) sitting still in a certain place for a full minute before he approached my door. The place he had to be standing--is where my mailbox is! So, did this 'mailman' take the mail out of my box to hand deliver it to me? Why would he be standing so close to the unmistakable, very prevalent mailbox and not just put the dumb mail in there? (I usually receive my mail around 2pm. there was no mail delievered to my box as of about 4pm. I did go to the post office to mail some books out yesterday, and it was busy, because of the holiday the previous day. However, I have never had my regular post delayed for a reason like that.)

When I go to the PO tomorrow, I'll ask the guys there if this is something that seems 'normal' or if they have an explanation.

My Men in Black Visit last night...Part 1

Maybe it has a mundane explanation. Actually, I'm sure it does, but it's still very weird, and if this type of thing were to continue, I suppose I would start questioning the mundaneness. It has to do with a man in uniform and flashlight at my door at 9:45 pm last night, 'delivering' my mail into my hands. This is actually the second weird visit I've had in a few months. The first happened in August.

I had received a phone call, kind of a telemarketer kind of sound to it, and the woman identified her group or whatever, and asked if I would like to take part in a survey and earn $30. Duh, of course I would. She said a representative would be by within a few weeks, and I would be receiving some info via the mail. I probably did receive that, but it certainly got recycled without opening--I don't even give anything that remotely looks like junk mail a second glance.

The day before my son and I were to leave driving our friends' car to New York for them, the doorbell rings, and it's a round little Latina lady with a clipboard. She's here to do the survey. Her accent is extremely thick, and I can barely understand her--so I ask her if we (or she...I can understand far better than speak. Actually, I can barely speak at all, what is that about?) can speak in Spanish, and she says she cannot.

The entire thing turned out to be one of the weirdest things I have ever experienced. The woman was very strange--that is such an understatement. I'm not sure if I can propery convey the weirdness. She asked for a glass of water, that's fine. Then she starts complaining about how many houses she has already been to today, and shows me some paper showing me she is supposed to go to a couple more. She wants my opinion on whether she has done enough. I think back to an lab/experimental psych class in college, and this felt like some kind of test or something. I just told her she was going to have to make that decision, that I know nothing about her job requirements or description. She did not let up--she must have asked me 40 times suring the visit for my advice.

She then asked if she could take her shoes off, and without waiting for an answer, took them off along with her knee high L'eggs, and kicked everything *way* under my big coffee table. Looking closely at her, I actually wondered if she was born female. Her hairline was receding like a male's, and there was something about her brow that was very masculine. Her eyebrows were shaved and redrawn on, and her bright red lipstick was all messy, and all over her mouth and chin. There was just something very non-female about her face. But her voice was extrememly high and feminine, no possible way she could be a man with that voice.

It was determined by whatever information she fed into her laptop that my son was going to be the one to take the survey. She was so apologetic, saying she was hoping we could both do it, and explained the math like 500 times, of how that then would have been $60 for us, instead of $30. Yes, lady, I get it, and I don't care at all. Look around, do I look poor? It was the weirdest thing. I felt like I was 'supposed' to act upset. Then, she said she would try to see if she could bend the rules, and she pressed one button on her cell phone, and immediately started talking, saying, "I have a lady here who would like very much please to take the survey, can we...no? well, okay..."

What the? I just told her we needed to get busy with the survey because we're packing, etc. "Oh, where are you going?" "what's the weather like in new york?" "where's new york, do you have a map?" The she starts telling me she's going to have to move somewhere because she can't take the heat of Salt Lake City and that there's something 'wrong with the air.' I asked if she meant the inversion, and she jumped on it and said "the WHAT!?"

It made me think she had just moved here, because everyone living here knows what the inversion is. I asked her how long she's been living here, and she says : 10 years. No way. There is no way she has never heard of it. Anyone living here can back me up with that. She was amazed, and even had me spell the word so she could get more information later. That did it, she's moving to New York! At this point, my son is sulking in his chair, with a weird look on his face that doesn;t come on very often. He doesn't like this person, I can tell.

All moms think their kids are brilliant angels I know, but really, I can independently verify my son's abilities in character perception. This is a kid who is magnetic and attractive by his nature--unknown babies in strollers reach for him as he passes, little 5 year old girls we don't know will absentmindedly start braiding his hair while we're standing in line--we walk through a crowded pub downtown, and old people that I've never met call out his name; they've met him somewhere along the way. He's the kind of person that wild birds would land on. It sounds like I'm bragging, but my point is my child rarely has a beef with any creature, and when he does, I know there's something wrong somewhere.

So anyway, the woman gave the survey to Tierney--a PDA with 100 or so questions. She told me technically, I could not look at it, because it would influence the outcome. But I insisted on seeing what he was reading. It was all about drugs!

After he was done, I had to seal all these envelopes she used, because she wasn't supposed to 'know my address.' I explained that there's no way that could be right, since she had to know my address to come here in the first place, but she said she couldn't 'officially' know it. Then there was a whole fiasco about the $30. She gave me $40 and asked for change! I told her I didn't have any change, and she was visibly upset. She said she was supposed to have the exact amount to give me, and begged me not to tell on her.

I told her I would be happy to keep one of the 20s, while she walk across the street to the gas station around the corner to get change for the other one. She said her feet hurt, and she could not walk anymore. I told her she could come back tomorrow for the change. That wouldn;t work. This went on and on, and I finally told her we needed to get back to our lives. My son volunteered to take the 20 and get change. She was nervous the entire time. Like this is *our* scam or something, like we are grifters. We finally got her out of there. A couple months later, we got a phone call that sounded like a recording, asking for my son. It wasn't a recording though, because it responded. It was this place, wanting feedback. I found the papers they sent--it's the triangle research group. This is the place that grows the marijuana crops for the people who have legal prescriptions in the US.

What in the world is going on? I'll write about the weird 'mailman' in part 2.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Wine recommendation...




Tonight I opened a bottle of wine that has been sitting around for a long time. I actually considered walking over to my neighbors' to see if they wanted to trade it (I love the avenues. I could literally stand outside and say loudly, "Wine please!! Wine? And soon I would have a bottle in my hand, maybe a couple, from different sources. no questions asked, no weirdness, nothing--it's the aves. I love you, the avenues.)--it's just been sitting here in the rack so long it seems like it couldn't be special--I felt like it would taste like the wall. At the last minute, instead of taking it next door, I decided to just open it, and I'm glad I did.

It may be the most perfect red inexpensive wine I have tasted. I think it was about 5 bucks on sale. (The most perfect inexpensive white wine I have tasted is Ste. Chapelle's Reisling.) It's a Chilean cabernet sauvignon, Santa Carolina, Coleccion Especial, 2003.

Life review in slow motion: Topeka, Kansas and the Liminal




Since I turned 40 last June, I've been going through some intense life-reflection; I've generally been literally sick (almost a lovesick feeling) with nostalgia and memory. I'm also gearing up for a huge life transition, that is, moving across the country, from the place that has has been my home for essentially all my adult life now.
Because of this looming move perhaps, I have been thinking about the last move I made. I grew up in Topeka, Kansas. Perhaps everyone who has moved away from their hometown, and has been gone for decades feels it holds a similar place and quality; in my mind, Topeka is mythical, existing in some kind of vortex of unreality or even hyperreality. When I (rarely) go back now, I cannot believe the buildings still stand, these places where I am in my head so often--the crosswalk to my grade school, certain intersections, signage, entrances, trees, etc. Places that I have obviously and maybe randomly internalized.

Dillons grocery store at Brookwood Shopping Plaza is my personal Platonic Form "Grocery Store." My cousin used to take me there for ice cream sandwich treats, and we would eat them on the wedge shaped cement benches under the Dillons sign. They are magical, and reside in the abyss, the ancient of days memory that cannot possibly still be touched. Yet those slabs are still there.
Obviously, Topeka holds some sense of the liminal for me. But thinking about everything recently, I'm not really sure it's all me. It's fairly enigmatic on many levels. It's at the same time place of extremes, and a place of middle. It's kind of unclassifiable. It's weird.

The beginning of the zip code is 666. That of course, has been much fodder for all kinds of legends and stories. There's a legend that says the Pope requested his plane be diverted around the area on his way to California. There are legends of 'devil's gateways' , most notably the one between Topeka and Lawrence on Highway 6, in a town called Stull. The crumbling cemetery church in Stull has long been torn down, but I have stood in the center of this supposed gateway, and can report that there was no evil presence, or weird feeling.

Topeka is the hometown of the media crazy, outrageous hate mongering, religious fanatical, Fred Phelps clan. These are the funeral-picketing, god-hates-fags, god-bless-9/11 guys. The absolute uber Tricksters of the already tricked-out Bible Belt.

Topeka was the birthplace and home of modern American mental health scene for many, many decades. The Menninger Clinic was the place for all manner of experiments, (including supposedly some of Timothy Leary's LSD research, according to a psychiatrist I knew) and it's where the elite came for in-patient treatment. There were (pre-internet, pre-easily verifiable) long standing local legends about certain celebrities and their various escapades in Topeka and at Meninnger. For a long time, it was said Judy Garland died in Topeka, and all kinds of famous people were there having crazy psychotic episodes. The one about Alan Alda sticks in my mind--he was supposed to be there foaming at the mouth or something. Completely silly and false of course.

But it really was the place everybody went for treatment. It is also the place where everybody who seemingly had no motivation stayed after their treatment. I did know one guy with a famous family that ended up staying. He was normal, but there's a lot of crazy people walking the streets. Like any town, it has its identifiable street characters. But in Topeka, there were literally probably thousands. It's not that big of a town--the number is disproportionate.

The clinic was a pretty big deal in Topeka. In high school, I remember a huge all-school assembly, in the amazing Topeka High auditorium--it must have been some anniversary of the school or something, because they had all these THS alumni present. They saved the 'best' for last--Dr. Karl Menninger himself. He looked like God, and was about 6000 years old, and hobbled out brilliantly & graciously to literally about 30 minutes of unprecendented yelling and applause, standing ovations, screaming kids and teachers. This man brought the house down.

Because of Menninger's, there were also many psychiatrists, many mental health professionals. Most of my friends parents there were psychiatrists. Strange, interesting and liberal people for sure. There are also some confederate flags flying around in the back of pick ups. Bloody Kansas continues.

I don't know how much more I can write about Topeka without having to take a pill. I may think of some more weird stuff later.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Lazy, thriftstore-UFO-book reviews

I find, buy & read a lot of old UFO books, usually just cheap mass market out of print paperbacks. It's weird sometimes, because I literally grew up obsessively reading these things, so every now and then I get a weird deja vu feeling coming across a paragraph or photograph that I know I probably read in 1976. I grew up in a very book-deprived town; there were only a couple regular bookstores, Town Crier (which doubled as a smoke shop) and B. Dalton, but even that didn't come til the 80's, I believe. I actually miss B. Dalton's, dammit. I can smell them both.

There was a creepy used bookstore, on the 'wrong' side of the tracks, called Dean's Books that my sister used to beg my mom to take us to; I hated it because there was cordoned-off a porn section that...well, I'll leave that beautiful detail out of the story. I wonder if it's still there--it was as of 1996, when we took a ton of my dad's books there to sell after he died. We thought we would get so much money, but he offered us like $3. We were insulted, so ended up dropping them off at the thriftstore. Now, being a used book seller, I actually think that guy was being generous.

At Dean's books, so long ago, my sister was busy looking for novels that should have/would have probably been over her head, and I used to scrounge for any kind of UFO or paranormal type books I could find. I remember my mom saying "don't you have that one already..." because they all pretty much had the same cover, with "UFOs, blah blah" emblazoned across the cover.

While I'm out bookscouting now, of course I keep my eyes open for UFo books. I thought I'd start writing some brief reviews. Even though most of these books are out of print, many can be found at amazon, used, for literally a penny + shipping. Obviously, some things are outdated, but there are a lot of old, rather forgotten cases mentioned, and all kinds of ideas that have since become unfashionable. I'm all about UFO theories, so for me it's a great way to get information that might not be in the mainstream now.

Soon, I will post a review of one I just finished--Alien Agenda (not the Marrs book) by Clifford Wilson. He's got the demons going. Yee-haw, dammit.

Antiquarian book images for your perusal...


Looking for some images, I found this great group "Antique Books" at flickr. Lovely images, every one of them.

Image by ardorius

Friday, January 18, 2008

Unexplained incident at Lake Mead









In March, 2003, Steve, Tierney and I road-tripped down to Vegas for a couple nights, meeting up with some Salt Lake friends traveling to LA. After they left, we felt like getting away from Vegas for a while, and drove out to nearby Lake Mead to do the touristy Hoover Dam thing with my son.

On our way, only a few miles from the lake, driving through the canyon, we spied something seemingly impossible. Tethered to the guardrail alongside the road, was a helicopter in the air. The blades were going, and it looked otherwise "normal" other than the regular, plain rope holding it in a fixed position, and the fact that there was no one in the helicopter.

We slowed down a bit, after the bizarreness really struck us, just to see if we could put it in some kind of context or plausible story. Yet, there were no film crew or film trucks in sight (very familiar with that scene--the area I live in Salt Lake hosts many filming crews, and I've even had them filming on my street) no people around at all, no signage, absolutely nothing. We continued our trip, making small talk about the weird experience.
I figured an explanation would be found by searching around on the internet, or asking a friend, who is the head photographer/videographer for KSL TV, a local salt lake station. He knows a lot about helicopters; part of his job is spending lots of time in the news helicopter. I figured if this had something to do with filming, he'd know about it. But, he thought it was the most bizarre thing he'd ever heard.

I've also posted a question in the appropriate category at yahoo answers, and I received similar incredulous replies. Apparently helicopters are tethered sometimes, for training purposes, but in very controlled situations. Certainly not over a cliff face with no one in sight.

So, there are several mysteries here, and seeming impossibilities. The rope used for tethering seemed to be just a thick, regular rope. No high tech-ness at all. No one was in the helicopter...so how on earth would it be retrieved from the air? Why would it be so close to the public road? My estimate is that it was probably only 75 or so ft. away from the public, well-traveled road. I can't imagine this is safe.

There are commercial helicopter rides offered over Lake Mead, and over the general area (Vegas, etc.) But this was definitely just on public access land, in the middle of nowhere in the sense that there were no restaurants, stores, or anything anywhere around. It's a curvy canyon, with deep cliffs. It doesn't even seem a likely place to park a regular vehicle to get out and walk around--there's really nothing to walk to and from--unless rapelling or rock climbing.

This has bothered Steve and I over the years; there's seemingly no solution to explain what we saw. The other day, I asked both he and my son to draw what they remember. We purposefully didn't talk about any details, so our respective sketches would not be 'contaminated' by each others' suggestions. The drawings are very similar, and it's clear we all have generally the same memory. The first one Tierney's, the 2nd mine, 3rd Steve's.
Ideas and speculations welcome.






Thursday, January 17, 2008

Fabulous UFO site of the week...



Maybe everyone already knows about this great site with a most extensive gallery of UFO graphics, but I was sure pleased to find it. There are many thousands of contemporary and very vintage (including many pre-1947 flying saucer images, and shown above) comic book, book, and magazine covers all featuring UFOs; and perusing here can be addicting.
check it out here:

Sunday, January 13, 2008

today's cemetery picture on C2C...


Today, there's a curious viewer mail photo at C2C. Unfortunately, though, it likely has a mundane meaning. These alabaster type and style stones were common in the victorian era, well before ET was used commonly to stand for extraterrestrial. However, the font looks too angular and deep to be that old, and the stone itself seems fairly new also. That it is seemingly surrounded by concrete and not earth make me wonder if this is a gravestone at all. It would be helpful to have some context--the full view of the stone for one, and any surrounding stones placed similarly (like on the other side.) This could be anything from a 'pauper's grave' to a place marker (denoting a certain section of the cemetery.) There also do not seem to be any legends about this cemetery, and if there was anything anolomous at all about the origins of this stone, you can bet there'd be a legend attached.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

My only-possibly connected experience to an established Mormon folklore, temple's-on-fire-legend


Many years ago, I had a very strange experience while driving past the Salt Lake LDS temple. It was very early in the morning, probably 3 or 4 am. I was driving away form Crossroads Plaza, I assume either going home early from my graveyard dispatch shift for some reason, or driving to get some food for everyone. This was way before the church built the visitors' walkway on the east side of Temple Square, taking over Main Street completely. It used to be a normal street you could just drive through.


So anyway, I'm passing the temple, and happen to look over at it, and something catches my eye. In one of the windows below the gold Moroni, there is a BIZARRE light show going on from within. There were very bright, blazing, multi-colored lights swarming around, pulsating slowly in and out, and around and around. There was an iridesence that is hard to describe, a shimmering kind of effect I have never seen before or since. The window itself also looked kind of 'frosted', so that may have had something to do with my perception.


It definitely had a literal psychedelic quality, in that it looked like something from nature, yet something meaningful and maybe intentional and created. (maybe someone with more psychedelic experience than I can recognize the quality of what I'm trying to describe and expound?)


I pulled my car over to the side to watch it, hoping someone else would come along--it sounds silly, because the chances of anyone even noticing it while driving were slim, and even had they noticed it, why would they be compelled to stop? But at the time, it made perfect sense--there was a real sense that something extraordinary and magical was happening. I would say the feeling I had was rather as if the gold angel above that window had dislodged himself and was flying around playing his trumpet.


The lights just continued, and as it became clear there would be no hope for an explanation standing there, I eventually left. Talking to people afterward, it seemed no one had any idea what it could mean.


Today, I was searching some mormon folklore sites for some information about an article, and came across a mormon urban legend that very vaguely recalls my experience, in that it's a temple anomoly/misperception having to do with lights. From the Scholarly & historical information exchange for latter day saints website:



The St. Louis, Missouri temple was dedicated in June 1997. On Sunday, June 1, 1997, at 10:30pm, fire trucks and police vehicles shows up at the temple with sirens blaring, saying several callers driving by the temple had reported flames shooting from the top of the temple. According to Internet messages, the emergency personnel were quietly sent away with an explanation about "spiritual fire." Many were convinced a divine sign had been shown, similar to temples of the past.


and this comment:




I welcome any other stories, legends, rumors, experiences, etc. regarding temple anomalies...

Irritating stupid dumb media thing of the week: The guy living at the Ikea store


This spaz has moved into a New Jersey IKEA store while his apartment is being renovated! Oh, the hilarity, the pomo cleverness, the irony! Please. It's about as hilarious and interesting as a 'pregnant nun' halloween costume. I'm not sure why I am so annoyed with it--more than the thing itself, it's the presentation...and the assumption there's some meaning in the obvious meaninglessness of it--there's some bad lost pun in the layer upon layer upon layer, etc. absent social commentary that I just don't even want to think about. I suppose too, I am just sick of this unnamable Gen Y cool-dork-hipster factor this guy seems to embody.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Well, here we go with the girly-girl stuff.



Although earlier in Hillary Clinton's campaign, there were pathetic remarks made about her being a silly goose for laughing, I wondered at what precise moment the inevitable avalanche of adolescent misogynist sludge would rip free and cement itself for good, and here we have it. "Can Hillary cry her way back to the White House?" and "Clinton turns it around with emotion outburst..." blah blah blah.

There is more than an implication she won New Hampshire last night because of this one scene at an espresso cafe. I listened to commentary from several sources last night, everyone's onboard: the consensus then and this morning seems to be she won because she cried.

Obviously, there are more dynamics beyond that, and if it is rooted in truth, it may not be so dire and grim (the public recognizing and responding to her willingness to be honest and vulnerable; a shared perception and empathy, etc.)

My annoyance is the mindless reduction, the sense of justification: she cried, she won. And like many trivial, small incidents that happen in front of the camera, this has been and will be milked way past dry and stupidly pointed to literally forever now; we cannot get over ourselves because for whatever reason, we're stuck in the particulars of base gender dynamics, like a bunch of whooping, giggling kindergarteners.

When we look at what actually spawned her reaction, it's amazing she had enough restraint to keep from jumping up on that table and kicking the tall skinny lattes across the room; she was talking about her personal high hopes and plans for finally pulling the country out of the clutches of this mad freefall we've been in for 7 years now.

The picture has little to do with the post; I just like it.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Flying saucer postcard...


From Card Cow: Description:PHOTOGRAPHED FROM U.S. 101, CAMARILLO, CALIFORNIA AT 5:00 P.M. 24TH OF MARCH 1957 BY AGNES SANBORN, 1516 E. GRISWOLD ROAD, PHOENIX, ARIZONA. WITNESS WAS DOROTHY ROBERTS, SANTA PAULA, CALIFORNIA. RED FLASH IS FROM NORTH AMERICAN AVIATION ROCKETDYNE IN THE SANTA SUSANNA HILLS. NOTICE PORTHOLES IN UPPER PART OF CRAFT AND DARK SPOT IN BOTTOM.
Certainly a cloud formation, right?

Monday, January 7, 2008

what's the mystery...?


Today, C2C has this photo posted in its viewer mail section. I don't understand what the mystery is supposed to be, or what's creepy about it. It's obviously a guy ascending from a lower portion of the yard, or a cellar, or something similar. Looks like he's carrying some beer bottles or something. The stick in the foreground might be marking a pet grave or god knows what--but everything in the photo seems to have a mundane explanation, and I can't find anything anomolous at all. Other than he kind of looks like that burger king icon.

Help requested: establishing a 'media presence' for the JREF million dollar challenge


It seems the JREF is calling off its challenge in a little over 2 years. I know I could win the money--the problem isn't within the actual paranormal powers--it's within conforming to the rules and setting up a proper protocol that is fair for everyone. I recently viewed one of the preliminary challenges at their site, and it was pathetic on all accounts. "Paranormal peeing." The subject (I believe his name is James) stood with a blackberry or something in his hands, chatting with people on the discussion boards, facing the computer, while the woman with 'powers' stood like 15 feet away in a futile attempt to make James pee his pants. It may be the stupidest thing I have ever seen, on both ends. I can't believe the woman didn't speak up about it.

I realize there are myraid problems involved with the challenge and its parameters, but from this example, it would seem James was actively resisting any kind of engagement with what's her name, the one with pee powers. If that isn't within the protocol of course, then it's technically 'fair.' But, it may show on some level that if one is purposefully resisting, there is something to resist. Obviously, an arguable point, especially with such a bizarre power as that one.

So, my power is general diagnostic powers by prodding the feet, using my hands and a wooden tool. I use a combination of reflexology, acupressure, and intuitive protocols. I've no idea if this is covered within the bounds of the challenge, but if paranormal peeing is included, certainly this should be. It's been 100% accurate in my practice, and I have been doing this for 8 years. Getting an academic to verify it is a done deal.


Establishing the media presence & establishing the protocol, (and their time constraints now) are my only obstacles to one million dollars. So, I am available for interviews and whatnot concerning my fabulous power. By special arrangement, for purposes of subsequent publications of any sort, I offer a free, full reflexology session to demonstrate my abilities.


Ideas and comments welcome.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Tasty tonic recipe for winter ills

I've had strep throat the last few days, and I was craving a richer, heavier tonic than my usual lemon-ginger standby. It really seemed to make a dent in my throat pain, and helped keep me pleasantly numbed and dosed. Here's the recipe, amend accordingly for children and personal tolerance.

1-2 tbs. hot chocolate mix
1 tbs. rum
grated fresh ginger
cayenne pepper (as much as you can take)
1 cup hot (not quite boiling) water

Much better than theraflu.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Recommended occultish viewing...

I've recently watched a couple really great films with occult type themes that I highly recommend; both are available at Netflix without a wait.




I can't believe I waited so long to see it. I don't even know what to say other than it is one of the most amazing things that has ever been conceived of or filmed. It's like a cross between Last Temptation of Christ, Kill Bill, Pink Flamingos, Sleeper, Fitzcaraldo, and Laugh-In. I cannot imagine how anyone could feel ambivalent about it; it seems to be one of those love it or loathe it films. I loved it.




This is one of the most aesthetically appealing movies I have seen in a long time, on par visually with Sky Captain, Sin City, Brazil, Metropolis and the like. The storyline is interesting and watchable--a mutant, genetically engineered race gone wrong vs. a struggling human population--but it's the visuals that make the film. Altogether lovely.

Reminds me of the 'lost thunderbird photograph'...

Found on flickr. 'Two men and a dead eagle." The caption says 'circa 1930, north carolina.' That's one large eagle--about a 7 ft wingspan?