The Daily Grail Interviews Nick Redfern

New interview with Nick Redfern at The Daily Grail.

Not only does he have a new book out; There's Something in the Woods, but this is what he says about his new book on UFOs, due out next year:

I’m doing at least one more UFO book – a very controversial one due to be published next year that may actually unsettle a lot of people –

What, Body Snatchers wasn't controversial enough? Looking forward to that one!

Biscardi and Other Non-Lights

The Blogsquatcher has a post about Biscardi and like minded so-called Bigfoot researchers who are doing BF research a disservice. We are not well served by many of the "leading lights" of bigfootery discusses Steve Kulls thoughts on Biscardi. I don't think genuine Sasquatch researchers consider Biscardi a "leading light" but unfortunately, the media does; they love stuff like this, and that's what the public gets to see. It becomes a meme; the skeptics jump all over it; and, like the Wallace faked footprints and the ridiculous "bigfoot is dead" nonsense that came out of that in the media, it becomes a part of the mainstream's ideas about Bigfoot. (I really had someone, who knew of my interests in Bigfoot, say to me when Wallace died "So did you hear they found out what Bigfoot was?")

When it comes to UFOs and the circus like atmosphere that's one aspect of UFOlogy, I don't get so irritated about this kind of thing. It's an innate part of the phenomena, I always say. When it comes to Bigfoot research, it bothers me a bit more. It's not because I think BF is strictly "flesh and blood," because I don't. And since, believing that, there's a paranormal Trickster aspect to Bigfoot, the Biscardi's and other fools shouldn't be surprising. Maybe it's simply a matter of chauvinism; Bigfoot is closer to us than aliens. Of course, we don't know that either. Another reason is the attitude, and actions, the disregard, for nature, the environment, and the locals in areas by these clowns. The same thing could be said of, say, the Contactees, for example, who gravitated to Giant Rock in California, but I don't see it the same. For the most part, no matter how misguided one may think abductees UFO witnesses, and Contactees were, or are, they were genuine seekers.

I feel the same about ghosthunters (the very term ghost "hunters" bothers me) who lug tons of equipment around, clanging about, shouting at ghosts to reveal themselves or else and waving religious items, usually crosses, in their misty faces.

Maybe it's just a case of manners and intent.

New BF Thread On JREF: "Did The Skeptics Kill Bigfoot?"

This makes 19, or maybe 20, threads on the James Randi forum (JREF) about Bigfoot. This time they think the perceived lack of Bigfoot interest and reports is due to their hard work in skepticism. Oy.

Loren Coleman and the IRS: Saving a Cryptozoology Museum

I'm late getting this up, but as readers of Cryptomundo know by now, Loren Coleman has been having problems with the IRS, who don't seem to understand the purpose of Coleman's museum. We can help by sending a donation, no matter how small. Read more about what's been happening, and how to contribute, here.

New Bigfoot Threads on JREF

Two new Bigfoot threads on the JREF; check the sidebar on your right. 18 threads now over there on how Bigfoot doesn't exist. Gotta love it!

The Trickster, The Killing Field and Bigfootology

Bigfootology: The Dark Side and the “Killing Field”

There’s the strange side of Bigfoot; as this blog is called: Frame 352: The Stranger Side of Sasquatch. Strange doesn’t mean bad. Just, strange.

Then there’s the bad side, the dark side, of Bigfoot. Or maybe “Bigfootology” to distinguish it from Bigfoot itself. I’m pretty much joking here. But like those who distinguish UFOs from UFOlogy (the thing/phenomena itself, and the people involved in the thing/phenomena itself) we have the Bigfoot itself, and those that study Bigfoot. It’s not Bigfoot fault (or the UFOs in the case of UFOlogy) that there are humans with grudges, who attack each other, who are out for money above all else, who see nothing immoral or unethical in using the phenomenon for their own greedy agendas, who lie and hoax, who get embroiled in weird, nasty and sometimes very dark things surrounding Bigfoot.

Bigfootology: The Dark Side. Welcome.

Cryptomundo has an item up on the latest darkness. Lots of other Bigfoot blogs and paranormal, Fortean news feeds have all kinds of material related to the following story of M.K. Davis, the “killing field,” supposed murders, censorship, fights, letters to state authorities, and more. It’s like some weird crypto Victorian novel.

M.K. Davis has been running around with the “killing field theory” -- that Bigfoot was killed at Red Bluff all those years ago. WTF?! Not the most professional reaction, but I am aghast at the whole thing, and that’s why I haven’t bothered to comment on this earlier. Some things are too weird -- too ugly -- to bother with. Davis has been “uninvited” to speak at an August Bigfoot conference. Lines have been drawn. People are disgusted. Etc.

(Davis has already been in hot water for being racist, according to some. The man is certainly controversial.)

Bigfootology -- why do some people go so far out there? While many BF researchers are busy arguing with each other over the validity of data that involves orb wielding, psychic Sasquatch emerging from UFOs, crap like this gets its fifteen minutes of fame. Fortunately, not many seem to take the “killing field theory” seriously. But my question is, why would someone -- in this case Davis-- even go there in the first place? That’s as much a mystery as Bigfoot itself. I suppose it’s just human nature. No matter what the field: academia, medicine, politics, science, or the trucking industry, you have drama. Often it’s High Drama bordering on theatrics. When it comes to world of Forteana, it’s all too often theatrical. As many have said, downright circus like. (Actually, I think of the circus as gaudy, sure, but not seedy, as in a carnival way. The carnival is the dark side of the circus world. That's just me and I'm digressing. . .)

It’s helpful to keep in mind that, as disgusting as all this is, it is to be expected. If you believe, as I do, that this kind of stuff is as much a part of the paranormal world as the paranormal world itself (and yes, I’m throwing Bigfoot in there with the paranormal world) it softens things a little. Trickster is alive and doing its thing; nothing can change that.

And while that’s all true; that doesn't’ make it right, or mean things like this should be tolerated. You have to call people on their stuff sometimes and stand up for your own ethics and beliefs, in whatever way is true for you.

I think some of this may have to do with a very misguided sense of wanting to protect Bigfoot. Another part of all this madness is that Trickster force again; playing with people’s minds. Get too close, too obsessed, too distracted, and before you know it, you’re being played. In turn, you start to play others, whether you know it or not.

Richard Thomas: Room 101 on BOA, and Nigel Kneale

Binnall of America's newest contributor, Richard Thomas, has a very nice piece up now: Ghosts, Aliens, Yeti and the Late Great Nigel Kneale.

Richard's column on Binnall of America is Room 101, and I've been enjoying it. His latest is about Nigel Kneale. Thomas writes:

Nigel Kneale (18 April 1922 – 29 October 2006) was a Manx (Isle of Man) writer, active in television, film, radio drama and prose fiction. He wrote professionally for over fifty years and was, in many ways, the father of serious science fiction drama on television.

Kneale is best remembered today as the creator of his now-legendary character "Professor Bernard Quatermass." Quatermass was a heroic rocket scientist, kind of a prototype for Doctor Who, who saved humanity from a range of very different alien menaces in a trilogy of stories written by Kneale in the 1950s.

Cool piece on some vintage stuff, with equally cool images!

http://www.binnallofamerica.com/rr6.6.8.html

Quatermass and the Pit - HQ Trailer (1967)

What does this have to do with Bigfoot? Well, enjoy this, and then read the post about Richard Thomas's Room 101 article on Binnall of America: Ghosts, Aliens, Yeti and the Late Great Nigel Kneale.

Website: "Bigfoot, Oh Yes They Are Real"

Someone e-mailed today with this link to their site; "Bigfoot Oh Yes They Are Real." There are some interesting photos on the site. The site is of the paranormal Bigfoot variety; invisible Bigfoot and the like.

It's another moment of Fortean synchronicity; for some reason, the past two days, I've been thinking very strongly about dematerializing Bigfoot, and how I would go about putting together some kind of presentation on the topic. Then I find this e-mail.

http://hometown.aol.com/osareal/index.html

Melissa Hovey and Monica Rawlins: "Gray Areas"

Bigfoot researchers Monica Rawlins and Melissa Hovey have a new podcast: The Gray Area. A bit about the show from their intro:

Straight forward in your face commentary [is shared] about the issues surrounding Bigfoot Research and the Paranormal Community with hosts Monica Rawlins and Melissa Hovey. This isn’t your typical Bigfoot show. Be prepared for strong opinions mixed with humor, and a healthy dose of common sense.. .

I love it; if you have complaints or rants, this is what they say about that:

If you have a problem with the opinions expressed by Melissa Hovey or Monica Rawlins, you should put on your big boy/girl panties and bring it to them. No one else can or will help you

.
Hat tip to Cryptomundo for the info.
The radio program link on Talk Shoe is here. First episode airs June 18th.

Notes:

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=19957&cmd=tc
http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/grey-area/

It's Trigger Happy Hog Killin' Time!

(Update: as you can read in the comments below, Lesley of Debris Field remarked that the image above is of a canned hunt, not a hog in the wild. Don't get me started on canned hunts. . .)

I'm a fan of Monster Quest, and was looking forward to the new season of episodes. The new season opened with Mega Hog, about giant hogs loose in the wilds of Texas and Alabama.

Lots of images of huge dead hogs, killed for no reason I could see, except that they were there. The hogs, that is. One guy, no spring chicken as they say, with a broken leg, drives out to where a giant hog was seen. So he drives out there, by himself, with his broken leg, hobbling about with his crutch, to kill him a hog, which, if I remember right, he did. Whoo hee.

Obviously, giant hogs running around are dangerous, and I sure as hell don't ever want to run into one. But there's something so sad, exploitative -- so full of blood lust -- about intentionally going out to shoot yourself some damn hogs. The one that really sickened me, which I commented on at the time, was the little kid, with his huge fancy weapon (looked like a missile launcher to me, not that I know what one is or looks like) all happy faced over his big kill.

Christ almighty, it's a sick world.

So there's some discussion at the beginning of the program about the hogs: are they "real" big giant hogs running around, or are they escaped pen fed pigs who got big by being in the wild? Seemed like a moot point to me; especially since they proved, by comparing skulls, the hogs were of the pen fed for eatin' (no, I don't eat pork) kind.
I mean, a giant hog in the wild is a giant hog; who cares where it came from?

I turned it off not more than fifteen minutes or so into the program. Too many groups of very excited men scrambling into trucks, armed with guns or rifles or who knows, things that kill, to go kill some pig. Just because and all, I guess.

There was something about one team going out to collar one of the hogs so they could track it via camera, etc. That sounded interesting but I just couldn't handle watching anymore of "Let's Go Kill Something Just Cause We Can" crap.

Maybe the show changed its tone later on but I couldn't take anymore.

Very disappointed in the show.

Hairy, Cat - Clawed Frog

Things are getting very strange in the world . . .

Hat tip to The Anomalist for this link about a very weird frog find: Cat-clawed, hairy, bone-breaking frog found in Cameroon.

The frog grows claws, it breaks its own bones, it's furry. It's the end of the world.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23777116-5003419,00.html

P-G "Patty" Shot?

That's one story that's attached itself to the Patterson Gimlin Bigfoot film and has been around for awhile. Read more on Cryptomundo.

http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/bf-incident/

Bigfoot, Sasquatch Sightings and Eyewitness Testimony

The Wildman of Kentucky Rock.
This came to my email; it's from something called Reality Entertainment. One of the narrators reminds me of the narration from those black and white films they showed us in elementary school in the 1950s.

Dig the "Sosquatch" pronounciation, lol.

The orb type light is curious; no idea what it is. Or, isn't.

Two New BF Threads on JREF

This one's called "Bigfoot Found!" and guess what, no really, guess. . . they're mocking Bigfoot! Hard to believe I know.

This makes something like sixteen threads about Bigfoot on the JREF.

http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=113609

But wait, that's not all. There's another one: "Moneymakin'! The BFRO Bigfoot Expeditions Thread."
http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=113816

Believe It! Tour

I received this email today from someone with the Believe It Tour. I'm not sure, exactly, just what they want us all to believe: I've only done a quick skim of their site. Maybe I'm getting old (well, yes, I am getting old. . .) but the cynic in me popped up right away. I wondered if this had anything to do with religion; sort of a "Bigfoot for Jesus" kind of thing. And then I wondered if Tim Biscardi has anything to do with this.

It does seem like a fun idea, if it's just people going aorund collecting stories of the paranormal and Forteana, connecting with others, etc. IF that's what it is. Too early in the morning to delve into it.

See for yourselves, but whatever it is, it's interesting. If anyone knows more, let me know, thanks!

http://www.believeittour.com/store/

Lizard Man in Colorado?

Followed this link on The Anomalist: The Mysterious Entity That Scared Investigators Was it the Lizard Man?,by Brent Raynes, relates the experiences of a strange "Lizard Man" in Colorado. A bit of synchronicity, because I'm reading Chris O'Brien's third book in his mysterious Colorado series: Secrets of the Mysterious Valley, about the San Luis area and its long history of high strangeness: UFOs, UADs, hauntings, and much more.

Speaking of Animals Gone Mad: Black Squirrels

The black squirrel, an aggressive squirrel taking over the planet and behaving badly all around, in Engladn and elsewhere:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_
article_id=561946&in_page_id=1770&ito=1490

When Animals Go Mad: Attack of the Ravens

About ten years ago, I started keeping a file of accounts to do with unusual and bizarre animal behavior. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the information; I remember discussing it with a professor of folklore of mine, but I couldn't come up with anything. Eventually I stopped adding to my file, but I'm still interested in these accounts.

Here's one, about ravens attacking sheep, cattle and other livestock.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/04/wildlife

High Strangeness on the Ranch

I have an article up at UFO Digest: High Strangeness on the Ranch, comparing a Colorado ranch and the Skinwalker ranch. Among the strange things seen on the ranches were Bigfoot type creatures.

http://www.ufodigest.com/news/0408/highstrangeness.html