A few weeks ago a sighting was made of a flying, tentacled UFO colliding with a wind turbine in England. Similar UFO’s had also been spotted a few days earlier in Scotland, described as octopus-like by the family of witnesses. I’ve blogged about tentacled UFO sightings previously in Shanghai and Stephensville, and there does indeed seem to be a lot of these things popping up all across the world.

But the tentacled haunting of our world’s skies is not a phenomenon unique to the modern age. . .

Behold. . .

Damn Data on the Living Flying Madness that is the Air Kraken

Perhaps the only modern account of a sky predator attack on humans was presented by best-selling author Charles Berlitz in his 1989 book, The Dragon’s Triangle. Berlitz retells the story of a doomed aircraft, an account he attributes to researcher Robert Coe Gardner. According to Gardner, a military transport plane took off from the San Diego Naval Air Station late one afternoon during the summer of 1939. Several hours later over the Pacific, the plane transmitted a desperate SOS, then fell silent. The stricken aircraft made it back to San Diego and managed an emergency landing.

After touchdown, ground personnel were horrified to discover that 12 of the 13 men on board were dead. The sole survivor-the copilot-died several minutes later. Reportedly, all the bodies exhibited massive, gaping wounds, and the exterior of the craft was badly damaged and torn open in places. It was also soon determined that the pilot and copilot had emptied their pistols at some unknown target. The whole episode was quickly hushed up, and Gardner would not hear of it until 1954.

Brass Goggles – March 17th is Air Kraken Day

Some of you may be aware of the scourge of the skies – the deadly Air-Kraken. Though Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote of them (The Horror of the Heights), and the whole ecology supporting these sky based terrors, they seem to have been mostly forgotten about. Well, with March being the height of their mating season, it’s as good a day as any to look warily to the skies and remember the mighty Air-Kraken.

The Air Kraken Wakes

In September, 1891, a very unusual story came out of the small town of Crawfordsville, Indiana. At about 2 a.m. on the morning of September 5, two men hitching a wagon saw a “horrible apparition” appear in the sky. About 100 feet in the air hovered a bizarre creature–somewhat like a serpent, with no visible head. It was about 20 feet in length and had several pairs of wings. Reverend G.W. Switzer, a Methodist preacher, and his wife also saw the bizarre creature. It appeared again the following day in the evening. Hundreds of residents of Crawfordsville watched the creature as it flew about and “squirmed as if in agony”. It hovered at an altitude of about 300 feet and was heard to make a “wheezing, plaintive sound”. After this second appearance, the Crawfordsville Monster vanished, and it has not been seen since. The case has been investigated only by Charles Fort, who wrote of it in Lo!, and Vincent H. Gaddis, who recounted the story in Mysterious Fires and Lights. The biggest problem in identifying the monster, in addition to its utterly bizarre appearance, is the fact that no one is really sure whether or not it is actually a cryptid, or, as some claim, some sort of strange UFO display.

. . .

Gargantuan objects seen in the skies, like massive organic mother-ships from some sci-fi film about alien invasion? The image here at left was purported to have been taken by an Italian Dentist in Italy in July of 1999 in broad daylight. Little more is known about it than that the object was said to be extremely large, flying very high in the sky, emitting no sound and at a pace far too fast to be conventional aircraft or a balloon of somekind, and others who also witnessed the weird spectacle said its underside had ‘lights like a UFO.’ What is this grotesque, tentacled flying thing?

It’s so Lovecraft.

Whether or not the jellyfish UFO’s are the same phenomenon as the air kraken, I cannot say. All I know is, any vision of the 1800′s that doesn’t feature giant flying squid constantly attacking cowboys and airship pilots is both completely inaccurate and lame.

I love you air kraken.

See also:

H.P. Lovecraft – From Beyond

Arthur Conan Doyle – The Horror of the Heights

Air Kraken at The Steampunk Forum

Star Jelly

Atmospheric Beasts

Carl Sagan on Aerial Entities and Life Amongst the Clouds

“A Scholarly Paper on Flying Squids”

The Deep Ones and the Madness of Crowds

Cephalopodmas is December 22nd

(more…)

Cryptozoology, Supernatural, UFO | 2 Comments »

NBC announces that Andy Richter will reunite with Conan O’Brien when he returns for the new “Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien”

. . . and all is right with the world.

Q&A with Conan and Andy

Paul F. Tompkins and Andy Richter outside the Actors Studio

Bonus links:

Andy Barker, P.I.

Lykki Li on Conan

Comic-Con Coverage pt. 4: Robin vs. Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

Revolution | 2 Comments »

But will we ever get to see it?

From The Strangeness of Brendan McCarthy

I found this DOOM PATROL script the other day that I had doodled all over, from Grant Morrison… It was an episode that Grant wrote for me to draw back in 1991/92 or thereabouts: I asked for an old style DC ‘imaginary story’ with Danny The Street as the central character. But by the time the script turned up, I had to do a film so I couldn’t draw it and I think eventually, we all sorta forgot about it… It would be fun to draw it up after all these years and release it as a VERTIGO ANOMALY one shot.

Even the very idea of a lost issue of Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol, especially one drawn by Brendan McCarthy, has already caused drastic and irreversible changes to my central nervous system and primary sense organs. I am not the same organism as I was before I knew about this, and I can’t imagine what it will do to me when I’m actually holding it in my hands.

I hope it happens soon.

The first two pages of the script, with doodles by Brendan, can be seen below.

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Comics | 2 Comments »

This is a new short story I’ve just added to the site. It’s named after the chorus of an Underworld song.

Connector
Dean Verheyen

“You know,” said Lauren, “I think we have some bodies like that at the morgue where I intern.”

“Really?” Brad’s eyes widened, and his mind started to race. The idea of jacking into a dead person was one that had been floating around his brain for almost as long as he’d had his connector installed in it. Until now though, it had only been an idle daydream as Brad had never actually seen a dead body before, let alone had one presented to him by a cute girl in a tight skirt.

Lauren had never even considered the idea of connecting to the dead. Most of her time in the morgue was spent dissecting with her friends and trying not to think about zombies, but it was Friday night and she was out and feeling bad. The thought of getting into trouble late at night in the place where she worked and studied was too much fun to let fall from her mind.

They all had another two drinks each, and within thirty minutes of the bars throwing everyone out and locking the doors behind them, Lauren was experiencing an excited rush of adrenaline as she unlocked the doors to the science building on campus and let in her friends. Brad went through first, followed by Nadia and Alice, who walked in together, connected by a long purple cable at the back of their skulls. Nadia and Alice had barely been acquaintances before hooking up one night at a dance party. Since then the two of them had been linked almost constantly. Port-to-port when they were together and through the net when they were home. They even slept like that sometimes.

Next through the door was Derrick, who they had just met at the bar about two hours earlier. He was at least ten years older than the rest of them and so full of drugs that he was still wearing sunglasses indoors at two in the morning. He walked through in silence.

Lauren came in last and locked the door behind them as they stepped into the darkness. (more…)

Literature | 3 Comments »

Baby Born In Bay Area With 12 Functioning Fingers, 12 Toes

Baby Kamani Hubbard has six-fully formed and functional fingers and toes on his hands and feet. It’s called “polydactyly” — extra digits — not an uncommon genetic trait, but Bay Area doctors say they’ve never seen a case so remarkable.

Born at San Francisco’s Saint Luke’s Hospital three weeks ago, Hubbarb seemed so perfect at birth no one noticed.

. . .

“It’s merely an interesting and beautiful variation rather than a worrisome thing,” said Dr. Michael Treece and St. Luke’s Hospital Pediatrician. “I would be tempted to leave those fingers in place. I realize children would tease each other over the slightest things, and having extra digits on each hand is more than slight. But imagine what sort of a pianist a 12-fingered person would be. Imagine what sort of a flamenco guitarist. If nothing else, think of their typing skills.”

The family on the father’s side has a history of extra fingers, but non-functioning fingers, and never toes. By definition then this can only be evolution.

I’m glad they all decided to let him keep the extra digits.

Links:

Baby Kamani Video on CNN

Kamani’s Mom on MySpace

Bond Girl Had 12 Fingers

He could join a superhero team any time.

Science | No Comments »

Logging into my myspace account yesterday, I found an intriguing status message from rap godfather KRS ONE.

Please check out the POWER OF FUTURE super conscious studies for the everyday metaphysician. T.P.O.F. DOWNLOAD IT TODAY! CHANGE YOUR TOMORROW.

This was definitely a surprise. I had to investigate.

From KRS ONE’s Blog

The secrets revealed in these lessons are very effective. These are the lessons and excersises that KRS ONE developed living as a home-less man. We appreciate your support and send many blessings to everyone who has already downloaded the power of future. Remember, you control your destiny and never forget you are HIPHOP!

That’s right. KRS ONE, aka Chris Parker, has just released a spoken word album to teach you magic. It’s called T.P.O.F. – The Power of the Future. I downloaded it this morning.

The techniques discussed in these seven tracks involve meditation, reconstruction of identity, time travel, and the sharpening of your astral senses. It’s a great guide for people who are just now coming to the subject. A great introduction for people who haven’t considered mystical practices before.

The album can be downloaded from KRS ONE’s myspace page and it is definitely worth listening to, especially for his fans.

KRS is one of the rappers we paid tribute to in the Nerve and Mickey Factz music video.

UPDATE: The Power of the Future can now be heard here.

Music, Supernatural | 13 Comments »

An interesting series of essays on the subject of Twin Peaks and UFOs has been started by author SMiles Lewis over at Anomoly Magazine.

It’s called the Blue Rose Report.

UFOs and The Black Lodge – A Blue Rose Report Primer

Here is a show oozing with occult intrigue and mythic significance. Lynch would tap into the seemingly unrelated realms of CSI style FBI investigation of a possible serial killer in an idyllic town, the Air Force’s UFO investigation called Project Bluebook, the occult war between the supernatural forces of the Black Lodge and White Lodge, the double crossing, drug dealing, prostituting, seedier side of a small community, the spiritual journey of a mystical FBI agent who uses a combination of Buddhism, dream analysis and divination techniques to fight crime and … did I mention the “Log Lady?”

These and many other magickal mysteries from the TV series Twin Peaks will be the first guideposts for our phenomenological exploration and criminal expose within this column. In our next installment we’ll dive deeply into the nitty gritty behind the creation of the series and the nature of Lynch’s vision and creative process, while paying special attention to the specific real world examples of paranormal research that back up the weird and wacky storyline of the Twin Peaks universe.

And we just might learn a little about Austin’s own darker underbelly, along the way.

UFOs and The Black Lodge – A Blue Rose Report part 2.1: CryptoUFOlogy

Many people who are casually interested in the subject of UFOs have no idea that there are in fact a handful of competing schools of thought on the subject and that these off-shoot areas of research often do not revolve around the existence of identified extra-terrestrial craft. After the foundational phase of the “Modern UFO Era” inculcated the populace with myths of Close Encounters and Contacts with Flying Saucers, a new breed of researcher began expanding their perspectives by widening their knowledge base to encompass a variety of other seemingly related areas of inquiry. These arenas for research included parapsychology, shamanism, folklore, and other experimental and experiential modes of investigation. These new modes of looking at the broad spectrum of anomalous, Fortean (after researcher Charles Fort) mysteries often incorporated an understanding of deep-politics, and how parapolitical covert-operations and the ridicule factor are often used as a discrediting tool for social control and the mitigating of publicly perceived paradigms. In certain circles these alternative approaches have been branded as paranormal scientism, or as paranoid conspiracy theory, and are thus treated as being unscientific. And so we have a sort of CryptoUfology or ParaUfology; an unofficial ufological counter-culture of researchers looking into the deeper, hidden sides of UFOs and related paranormal phenomena.

A Blue Rose Report radio series, hosted by the author, was also created to discuss the Twin Peaks/UFO subject, and the themes and phenomena surrounding it. The first 20 episode season is available here.

The entire series has just been added to my iPod.

See also:

The Magical Language of Twin Peaks

Goodbye, Don Davis

Mysterious Beings in Alaska

Twin Peaks: The Saturn Lamp from The Red Room

Movies, Supernatural, UFO | No Comments »

Or golden cownose eagle rays to be exact. These photos were by photographer Sandra Critelli during a whale shark expedition off the Yucatan Peninsula.

It was an unreal image, very difficult to describe. The surface of the water was covered by warm and different shades of gold and looked like a bed of autumn leaves gently moved by the wind.

It’s hard to say exactly how many there were, but in the range of a few thousand.

More photos by Sandra Critelli.

(Found via Hillary!)

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News, Travel | No Comments »

This week a hacker in Austin, Texas changed the readout on an LED road sign to warn motorists of zombie attacks.

There was a velociraptor warning in Indiana as well.

How to Hack an Electronic Road Sign

Revolution | No Comments »

The newest issue of Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens has been released, and was instantly consumed by myself upon it’s arrival in my mailbox. Seventy-six pages of literary sexiness and bizarro brilliance, Bust Down the Doors and Eat All the Chickens should be on every magazine rack on the planet, right next to all those classic issues of Astonishing Tales and Assimov’s that wouldn’t stand a chance in comparison.

Featuring the dramatic tale of a giant mechanical Michael Ironside; a sky filled with enamel and a man on a date with the night itself; gun-toting lunatics that will make you laugh, and a piece of Friends fan fiction that is the scariest things I’ve read in ages.

Stories by:

D. Harlan Wilson
Blake Butler
Adam Breckenridge
Mike Young
Sam Pink
Matthew Simmons
Aaron Sitze
Cameron Pierce
Darby Lawson
Ofelia Hunt
Rhys Hughes

Edited by:

Bradley Sands

Issues 2 and 7, as well as two other anthologies, can be downloaded here. The newest print issue of Bust Down the Doors and Eat All the Chickens is available to order here.

Very cool.

Literature | 4 Comments »