Sometimes I wonder if the ancient Gnostics weren't the first Geeks. Their cosmologies and tautologies were just as complex and overwrought as any superhero fan's, and their Apocalypses and Gospels can seem like fanfic, endlessly reimagining more prominent works and adding layers of sometimes impenetrable jargon and buzzwords.
In 1960, the powerful Washington think tank The Brookings Institute released a white paper which included a section on UFOs and ETs, outlining a number of various scenarios for poltical and military leaders should contact ever occur.
Synchronicity is a wonderful and powerful thing. If you work with it, it works with you.
Oopsy Daisy!
A lot of people know about Jack Kirby's 1958 "Face on Mars" story by now, but fewer have read it. And that's a shame, it's a fascinating story.
About three years ago, I marked the occasion of John Keel's death by writing about some of the strange, semiotic links I have to the Mothman. There were so many of them, and these syncs seemed to pop up at such important turning points in my career, that I thought it was all worthy of a post.
Most people have a stereotype of "conspiracy theorists" as wild-eyed hysterics, who theorize first and maybe-- maybe-- ask questions later. Unfortunately, there's an entire population of conspiratainers and their followers who are hellbent on proving that stereotype right, and then lowering the bar as far as possible.
German Surrealist dragooned by British hippies, circa 1968
My recent Operation Trojan Horse re-read wasn't merely on a whim- it was inspired by a brief passage in Nick Redfern's new book The Pyramids and the Pentagon, almost an afterthought in the context of the book.
I've been re-reading John Keel's Operation Trojan Horse and finding I'm not quite as impressed as I was the first time I read it.
The big tempest in the tiny teapot of the comic book world is DC's new Before Watchmen program, which has press-ganged some of the biggest names in comics to create mini-series based on the stars of the original Watchmen maxi-series from 1986.
I have a terrible confession to make-- I'm a writer. I'm always stuck inside my head, chasing reveries and obscure connections hither and yon, running down side-streets in my mind. So mastering the podcast format is a challenge for me. I had the same problem when I was interviewing- when I was warmed up and got in the rhythm, I was on fire.
Maurice Masse's passport to Magonia, July 1, 1965
I've had a strange relationship with Fringe. I thought the pilot was great but the first half of the first season had a particularly irritating corporate/team-building/authority-boosting vibe I found particularly galling.
Max Ernst, The Twentieth Century, 1955
This morning it seems so perfect, so fitting. In Archonic America, where devolution is the ultimate virtue and everything that once made Americans proud and unique must first be defiled and then destroyed, it seems inevitable that Whitney Houston is taken off the boards.
Forming is one of those webcomix that I'm not sure I'm not hallucinating. it seems to have emerged from my unconscious, or perhaps your unconscious, or yours. Or even you back there.
We've looked at Jack Kirby several times in the past here, most notably in his startlingly accurate (if not often allegorical) predictions of the Face on Mars in 1959, 9/11 in 1984, and the Gulf War and Iraq War in 1974 and 1975.
One thing I had failed to realize about The Eternals was that Kirby's depiction of the Deviant invasion of Manhattan wasn't quite the exercise in 50s nostalgia I had originally taken it for.
