Radio Misterioso
John Shirley: Less Believer, More Skeptical
Author: SpaceBrother
The iconoclasitc and prolific writer John Shirley has been a friend of mine for over a decade now. We first met when he noticed me laughing at a line in a David Jacobs lecture at the Orange County MUFON meeting in 1994. While most of the crowd reacted with disapproval, John walked over to my table and introduced himself.
He later wrote a ficitonal piece called “Abducting Aliens” for my magazine, involving a SubGenius wildman who grabs cattle-mutilating aliens and rams things up their rear ends for fun. He used to write a segment on his website called “The Skeptical Believer,” where he examined a multitude of paranormal issues.
Since then, Shirley has written a modern UFO novel (Silicon Embrace), and horror and cyberpunk novels such as Spider Moon, Crawlers, The Other End, and Black Glass. He has also written television, movie, and graphic novel scripts, most notably the script for the original Brandon Lee Crow movie. He was also the recipient of the Bram Stoker award from the Horror Writers of America for his 1998 short story collection entitled Black Butterflies.
For this, John’s second appearance on the show, we talked about his frustration with UFO sightings and researchers, his belief that most if not all crop circles are made with boards and rope, and his interest in esoteric spirtituality such as the writings and teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff. I don’t agree with John on many issues; he appears to take things with more of a grain of salt than I do, but so what? We also discussed the BP oil spill, drug legalization, and his musical accomplishments with Blue Oyster Cult and various punk bands.
John says that his next appearance on Radio Misterioso will be his interview of me. I can’t wait.
read comments (1)Supergroup: Ecker/ Kimball/ Bosley
Author: SpaceBrother
L to R: Don Ecker, Rear Admiral Zorgrot, Paul Kimball
Two friends traveled to the studio to join Walter and I for a long (2.5 hour) conversation that ranged far. Don Ecker is best known as the research director for UFO Magazine in the 1990s. He currently hosts Dark Matters Radio, which airs weekdays from 10-midnight PST at Cyberstation USA. Paul Kimball returned for his fourth appearance on the show. Film writer/ producer Paul is probably best known to our audience from his film Best Evidence: The Top 10 UFO Sightings, and his website The Other Side Of Truth.
All of us are currently associated with the Paracast program in various roles as occasional guests or co-hosts. Walter is involved in a small controversy on the Paracast community forums, which we discussed last week, and should be posted soon.
The rare face-to-face meeting of thougthful minds who are all interested in the paranormal gave me an excuse as a host to guide the conversation to areas that I wanted to hear about, such as Don’s stories about middle eastern jinns, Paul’s journey from confirmed skeptic to near-believer during the filming of his latest TV series on ghosts, and Walter’s experiences in the Air Force and FBI. Praise and scorn was also heaped on various personalities in the UFO field.
The show was a lot of fun, Walter brought pizza, I brought beer, and we hope you enjoy the show.
read comments (6)Darren McGovern: Music and Esoterra
Author: SpaceBrother
Darren has been a friend of mine for a very long time. When we met, we were both embarking on journeys of self-discovery, mainly through the writings of people like Robert Anton Wilson and Israel Regardie. Most listeners of this program know Wilson’s work. Regardie is known as the great scribe and philosopher of the Golden Dawn system of Western Ritual Magick. Both Darren and I were enrolled in schools of Western Occult studies, and realized that it was one of the oldest forms of self-therapy.
Darren has also been a composer/ musician for most of his adult life. We talked about influences on our lives and thinking and Darren played selections from his new CD This Old Life. We also talked about (and listened to) his musical influences such as Captain Beefheart, Robrert Johnson and singer/songwriter Pat MacDonald (formerly of the band Timbuk 3.)
We ended with a discussion about the influence of comedy on our lives and philosophies. I played part of a recording I made of a performance from the legendary Tony Clifton from a couple of weeks before.
read comments (0)Chica Bruce: Renaissance Woman
Author: SpaceBrother
Chica on a monitor during taping of a TV show.
Alexandra “Chica” Bruce is a smart cookie. I’ve known her for about a decade, but we’ve only been able to meet in person a few times. She first came to my attention with her book The Philadelphia Experiment Murder: Parallel Universes and the Physics of Insanity.
Since then, Chica has written six more books on subjects ranging from myths and realities of the 2012 “apocalypse” to a new translation and examination of testimony from the 1917 Fatima apparitions to investing in rare wines.
On February 28th, we took a day trip to Santa Barbara with the aim of getting Chica a paraglider flight. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate, but I had her captive for the day, and convinced her to come by for a live appearance on Radio Misterioso.
She talked about her own startling UFO sighting at the age of 14 in Brazil. We then moved on to a short discussion of a book which accuses Tibetan Buddhist monks of various abuses, then an in-depth look at her Fatima book, and the implications of the prophecies that were revealed to the witnesses. We also talked about the devastating Chile earthquake, which had just occurred the day before, and the evidence of tidal surges we observed in the beach just that day. Chica talked about possible cosmic influences on the Earth and possible connections to the rash of recent earthquakes. This led to a conversation about the history of the planet as described by the theories of catastrophism (i.e. the work of Immanuel Velikovsky.) We end with some musical fun.
Lots more to hear in this episode. Download and enjoy.
read comments (3)Skylaire Alfvegren: Fortean Journalist
Author: SpaceBrother
Skylaire has been a friend for many years, we were even roommates for a few months. She has offered me no-holds-barred critiques of my writing, which improved it immensely. This is her second appearance on the program. Last time she was on, we played weird music for most of the show, the recording of which has mysteriously disappeared.
Skylaire’s writing has appeared in scores of publications, such as the L.A. Weekly, Hustler, and UFO, among others. She is also a main contributor to the Weird Nevada book from the “Weird U.S.” series.
She has also founded the League Of Western Fortean Intermediatists (LOWFI), which counts members in Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico. LOWFI maintains a network of writers and researchers who report on weird goings-on in the western U.S.
The show ranged over many subjects. We started off with a discussion of Marilyn Monroe’s gravesite and rumors that the space next to it is up for auction. We embarked on a almost stream-of-consciousness series of discussions including such disparate subjects as:
A recent performance of late comedian Andy Kaufman’s partner Bob Zmuda, and we continued about Kaufman and the nature of comedy.
Charles Fort’s original notes, which we were allowed to study a few years ago.
Tragic film stars of the silent era.
What it’s really like to live in L.A. as a born-and-bred native.
The dumbing-down of paranormal TV shows.
Writing about weird stuff.
The interview was more like a conversation and I think I interrupted her too many times, for which I hope she forgives me and returns someday! We also played some wacky music which I thoroughly enjoyed.
The show was recorded on Dec. 6th of 2009.
read comments (2)Don Ecker – Out The Rabbit Hole And Back Down Again
Author: SpaceBrother
Don Ecker is one of those people in the field that you don’t hear as much about these days. There is a reason for that. In 2007, Don retired from the field with a lengthy paper entitled 20 Years In The UFO Fog. He described his adventures and the wide variety of people he met in that time, from the insanely smart to the ridiculously idiotic. Like many in the field, he grew tired of the incredible noise and very faint signal that surrounds UFO study. During his tenure as Research Director for UFO Magazine, Don talked to everyone and slowly tried to make sense of the phenomenon. Like many others, Don found that the answers can be elusive.
Late last year, Don started posting comments on the Paracast community forum, and by late January of this year, had revived his interview program, now called Dark Matters Radio, which can be heard live from 10PM to midnight PST on Cyberstation USA.
He appeared on the our program on February 28th to talk about his newfound interest and reveal some of his little-known areas of study.
We spoke about the 1989 MUFON convention when Bill Moore revealed his association with government intelligence, Don’s days in law enforcement when he was asked to investigate a unexplained animal death on a cattle ranch and his own UFO sighting. Richard Sarradet, one of my oldest friends and sometime co-host on Dark Matters, called in to talk about our strange interaction with a man from Naval Intelligence in the mid-1990s. Don also discusses his interest in lunar anomalies, like suppressed photos of apparent structures on the moon’s surface found in NASA archives.
read comments (2)Tim Beckley: “Mr. UFO”
Author: SpaceBrotherTim has been around the UFO scene for close to 50 years. He helped Jim Moseley organize conventions in the late 1960s, hung out with authors/ pranksters Gray Barker and James Moseley, and counted some of the classic contactees as friends.
He has also been publishing UFO and mysteries books for over two decades as president and CEO of Inner Light Publications. Have you heard of “Commander X?” Tim discussed this mysterious character and how he was able to write so many titles such as The Reality of the Serpent Race, Underground Alien Bases, and The Secret Plan of the Evil Shadow Government.
OK, I made that last one up, but Tim and I also talked about the early UFO scene and the colorful and fascinating history of UFO and space-themed publishing, some of which reaches back into the murky genesis of sci-fi pulp magazines of the 1930s.
We also discussed his encounter with a Man In Black in the 1960s and his photo of a mysterious character standing outside a friend’s New Jersey home, published in his 1990 book Mystery of the Men in Black: The UFO Silencers.
read comments (0)Miles Lewis: ELF Infested
Author: SpaceBrother
It is amazing that the name S. Miles Lewis does not come up more often in paranormal circles. In the time I have known Miles, he has been a magazine editor, served on the boards of Austin MUFON and the Institute For Neuroscience and Consciousness Studies, founded the Anomaly Archives and created a host of webmedia outlets though his Elfis Network.
On November 15th we talked about how we first met, my UFO hoax on Miles and our friends in the late 1990s, his magazine Elf Infested Spaces, the work of filmmaker David Lynch, and Lewis’ other influences and inspirations. We also discussed the possibility of a sort of unifying principle for the experience of the anomalous.
The Radio Misterioso page, as well as the Excluded Middle site is hosted and archived by Miles, so I can’t help but give him a big “thanks” for the unwavering support over these many years.
read comments (0)Mac Tonnies Memorial
Author: SpaceBrother
Mac Tonnies, Paul Kimball, and Nick Redfern, 2006.
On Sunday, November 1st, Paul Kimball and Nick Redfern joined me to celebrate the life of our friend Mac Tonnies, who was found dead in his Kansas City apartment on October 22nd, apparently of natural causes.
The sense of great loss was still with us as we discussed Mac’s sharp intellect, great sense of humor and his effect on us and others interested in the fields of UFO study, forteanism, and futurism. He was also a damn good science fiction writer. His ideas on the UFO subject were refreshingly non-dogmatic and evinced a refusal to toe the extraterrestrial party-line.
Mac had so much more to give, but we’ll have to be content with his memory, internet output and published writings and his forthcoming book on his Cryptoterrestrial Hypothesis, due out in the spring. We hope this program was a fitting memorial to our late, dear friend.
The program begins and ends with recordings of Mac reading from the draft of his new book. For other Radio Misterioso interviews featuring Mac Tonnies, look here and here.
read comments (2)Wacky Music With Mr. Fab
Author: SpaceBrother
If you read the description over at top left of the page there, this show is supposed to alternate interviews with “weird music and audio.” Here’s a great example.
Straight from his excellent blog Music For Maniacs, “Mr. Fab” joined us for two solid hours of musical strangeness on October 25th. Notable tracks played included a reggae song about Apollo 11, four or five old UFO drop-in songs (think “The Flying Saucer” by Buchanan and Goodman), sounds from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, elephants playing xyolphones and theremins, a mashup of the Muppets and the Stray Cats, Sad Kermit, and music from L. Ron Hubbard.
Enjoy!
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