Source: Anomaly Archives eNews 3/8/2016
The Anomaly Archives Weekly Email Newsletter
March 8th, 2016 – With so many explorers taking the final journey lately, it can be difficult just continuing. I’m so thankful for all the friends and family I have who are still here with me, with us, as we continue moving forward through spacetime.
This week’s newsletter was particularly difficult… I’ve been meaning for 
some time to mention the passing last year of “Texas ParaCryptozoologist” Rob Riggs. I’d known him since late 2001, early 2002, after I became aware of his book In the Big Thicket: On the Trail of the Wild Man. We went on an overnight expedition together into the wilds along the Sabine River with fellow Texas bigfoot seeker, Chester Moore. I’d see Rob speak of his alternative perspectives at various Texas Bigfoot conferences and host him and friends in my living room, interviewing him for a feature article in the Austin Para Times newspaper I was editing. When Rob was managing the local Natural Awakenings magazine, he sponsored the Anomaly Archives’ biggest ever event, the Texas Ghost Lights Conference featuring me as Master of Ceremonies, plus speakers including Rob, Nick Redfern, Paul Devereux, and James Bunnell. The last time I saw Rob was at his July 2014 presentation to the Anomaly Archives. Then last November, I got word that he’d passed away. I was asked to speak at his memorial and I did. I told his friends and family about my experiences with him, about how his research was received by fellow bigfoot seekers, told them about his support of the Anomaly Archives and about our strange experience on the Sabine River with Chester Moore. I also heard many wonderful stories from his numerous friends and spiritual seekers. It was a truly moving memorial for a man who dared to ask about possibilities. You can read more about him and his legacy at the links below. At that link you can also find photos of the the text of his last book, Bigfoot: Exploring the Myth & Discovering the Truth, for pages 100-103 wherein Rob relates the trip we took on the Sabine River with Chester… when the engine synchronistically cut-out after repeated mentioning of ‘El Diablo.’
. . . . .
Sadly, Rob was but one of many losses to the Cryptozoology Community this past year or so. You can find many excellent memorials to those other fine researchers as chronicled by researcher Loren Coleman at his CryptoZooNewsand Twilight Language websites in our “Leaving a Legacy” section below.
. . . . .
Meanwhile, there has been yet another passing of someone whom I and others found inspirational, right here in Austin, Texas: local artist and “Unofficial Mayor of South Austin” Henry Gonzalez. I met Henry and his wife Leea several years ago when my then girlfriend (now my wife) was working with them on the non-profit that they had founded. South Pop (South Austin Popular Culture Center) “collects, conserves, and exhibits vintage posters and live music ephemera from the 1960s through today to educate future generations on the rich and unique culture that makes Austin the Live Music Capital of the World.” In 2010 I became better friends with Henry and Leea as they helped me host a fun science-fiction pop-culture film-series outdoors at the South Pop facility on South Lamar. We launched the Summer Flying Saucer Cinema Series 2010, projecting such SciFi classics as Quatermass & the Pit, aka Five Million Years to Earth!, Invaders from Mars, and Starship Invasions. Henry lived an amazing and inspirational life. “Primarily known for his murals and outdoor art installations… he was part of the Armadillo Art Squad at the legendary Armadillo World Headquarter… spent time as the stage manager for the Austin Opera House and for the AFM free concert series… [and] on the road with touring bands” [including on Stevie Ray Vaughan’s final tour]. 
Just as we’ve been chronicling the passing of giants in our field of study, so too had Henry Gonzalez been chronicling the passing of Austin’s giants in the fields of art, music, and popular culture. One of his many achievements was “maintaining a vast altar to Austin’s departed musicians and artists. No one deserves placement on that wall more than Henry Gonzalez.”
You can read more about Henry in the “Leaving a Legacy” section below, online at our Anomaly Archives page, and in this article (Playback: The Mayor’s Plan to Save Austin Music Mayor – Steve Adler addresses the elephant in the club, Susan Antone honored, and Henry Gonzalez goes to the head of the Austin poster artist altar) by Kevin Curtin, in the March 4th edition of the Austin Chronicle(Volume 35, Number 27 – e-edition | pdf).
[Portrait of Henry Gonzales by Kerry Awn]
. . . . .
In lieu of our usual Book-of-the-Week, we’ve got a brief article by researcherScott Corralles reflecting on his interactions with rare book seller and independent publisher Bob Girard. Scott is the editor of Inexplicata – The Journal of Hispanic Ufology and corresponded with Bob for several years. After you readScott’s article you can read other past memorials and reflections about Mr. Girard at our Anomaly Archives website including our Bob Girard Collection page, searchable Catalog, Clas Svahn’s farewell to Bob Girard, and The Legacy of Bob Girard – An Interview with SMiles Lewis.
. . . . .
As with each issue of our weekly newsletter, we have a wealth of News Headlines from around the globe.
Among those which particularly caught our attention and imagination this week were yet another in a long series of “strange” teaching exercises that have been enacted repeatedly at schools in England. In my 2013 lecture, The Fantastic Facts About UFOs, Altered States of Consciousness, and Mind-at-Large – UFOs & Consciousness: Part Two, I mentioned that there had been at least nine such events like this between 2008 and 2013 in which the Department for Children, Schools and Families had employed staged scenarios involving UFO crashes, alien abductions of teachers, a bloody crime scene, and even a terrifying World War 3 simulation involving sirens, videos of global catastrophe, and fireworks. Well they are at it again… check out the link in the Headlines section below.
Meanwhile, a recent article from RoadTrippers.com highlights the “hidden gems” at the Capitol Reef National Park. This reminded me of the last “Kook Out” that my friends and fellow para-seekers, writers, and researchers from the old 1990s zine scene went on back in 2003. We converged in Capitol Reef National Park and had a wonderful time hiking and sight-seeing. As always with these gatherings, we told weird stories around the campfire and enjoyed each others’ company. In the spirit of that trip I include a picture of myself below in which I am posing in front of one of the barricaded uranium mines, complete with radioactive warning sign.
We hope you enjoy this latest edition of the weekly email newsletter.
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Remembering those who’ve inspired us…
Henry Gonzalez (Austin Artist) –
“Quien con la esperanza vive, alegre muere.
He who lives with hope dies happy.
With much sadness in our hearts we mourn the passing of SouthPop founder and father, Henry Gonzalez. The unoffical mayor of South Austin, Henry was the keeper and sharer of the stories that make Austin great. His artwork stands as a testament to his creativity, ingenuity, vibrant spirit, and colorful personality. But all the words in the world cannot illustrate his light and enthusiasm.” – SouthPop.org
Charles Robert Riggs (Para-Cryptozoology Researcher)
“Rob authored In the Big Thicket: On the Trail of the Wild Man, published by Paraview Press in 2001. I worked with editor Patrick Huyghe and Rob, proofreading, helping out, and reviewing Rob’s book. My review talked of how much I admired his work. I wrote: ”Rob Riggs’s new book takes the reader on a wild tour through one of America’s weirdest wonderlands. Riggs has produced a great collection on such mysterious Texan wonders as the Marfa and Bragg Road ghost lights, and the Big Thicket’s Wild Man, including one delightfully named Ol’ Mossyback. A shamanistic journey.”
Rob also co-wrote Weird Texas (with Wesley Treat and Heather Shade) published by Sterling Press, in 2005, and Bigfoot: Exploring the Myth & Discovering the Truth(with Tom Burnette) from Llewellyn Publications, in 2014.”
– Author, Friend, Bigfooter Rob Riggs Dies by Loren Coleman / CryptoZooNews.com
Chronicling Cryptozoological Legacies…
Loren Coleman, The International Cryptozoology Museum & CryptoZooNews.com
“Loren Coleman’s special appreciation of his fellow cryptozoologists and hominologists has made him the source of biographical insights, and his obituaries and living commentaries on the leaders of the field have been published widely. National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” for example, called on Coleman to speak in tribute of Dr. Grover Krantz who died on Valentine’s Day, 2002.”
Recent coverage of Para-Cryptozoo-Passings…
- Big Rhodey Researcher Dan Renaud Dies
“Charlotte Fort” Passes Away- Texas Bigfooter Charles DeVore Dies
- Mothman Researcher Dies
- Cryptoseeker Carolann Solomon Dies
- Author, Friend, Bigfooter Rob Riggs Dies
- Top Cryptozoology Deaths of 2015
- Awarding The Golden Yeti: Cryptozoologist of the Year 2015
- The Top Cryptozoology Stories of 2015
- The Best Cryptozoology Books of 2015
- International Cryptozoology Society, Founded 2016
- Karl Shuker’s Journal of Cryptozoology Now Benefit of Joining International Cryptozoology Society
Scott Corrales on Bob Girard
It was hard to miss the ads for Arcturus Books in the early days, when I took my first steps into the pool of ufology. Overwhelmed with information as I was, I n
ever thought to contact them or get a copy of their catalogue: magazines, ‘zines, newsletters and bulletin board postings (remember the long-gone days of BBS?) provided a dizzying mix of information where abduction claims, tales of underground bases and straight-out conspiracy theory shared the cramped pages like passengers on a subway train during rush hour.
It was much later that Joan Jeffers – a devoted Pennsylvanian researcher of UFO and related phenomena – told me to get a hold of Bob Girard, saying he could find any book or periodical I might remember from the early days of sauceriana, or even material from other countries. Oddly enough, I was sort of in touch with Bob already. His former partner, the late Ron Bonds, had set up Illuminet Press expressing an interest in publishing my translation of Salvador Freixedo’s “Visionaries, mystics and contactees”, a great introduction to the Spanish Jesuit’s vast body of work on the paranormal. Bob’s wife Monica provided the cover art for the project, so when I picked up 
the phone to call Arcturus, no introduction was really necessary.
Read the rest… at the
Anomaly Archives website.
Scott Corrales is the editor of
Inexplicata – The Journal of Hispanic Ufology
Photo of Bob Girard – Credit: Clas Svahn / AFU
- UFO crash lands at Aylesbury school! – BucksHerald.co.uk
- Clinton Campaign Manager Says Release All the Documents! (About UFOs) – MotherJones.com
- UFO Sweden Launches Crowdsourced Investigation Into Ghost Rockets Mystery (Video) – GhostRockets.se
- 19 years later and The Phoenix Lights mystery goes on (Video) – Fox 10 Phoenix
- Nothing But Swamp Gas? – The J. Allen Hynek Story – AboveTopSecret.com
- You know Area 51, but just what in the world is Area 6? ReviewJournal.com
- Area 51: Reviewing the Movie – Nick Redfern / Mysterious Universe
- Military/Government Experiments, Not Extraterrestrial Encounters (UFOCON)/ Operación Mirage: Las “Abducciones” Secretas De La CIA – Jose Antonio Caravaca
- Argentina: Airliner Has A Run-In With UFO Over Rio Grande – Scott Corrales, Inexplicata
- Exclusive: Navy Secretly Conducting Electromagnetic Warfare Training on Washington Roads – Dahr Jamail
- A Crash Course in the History of Black Science Fiction – FantasticStoriesOfTheImagination.com
- Scientists gear up to drill into ‘ground zero’ of the impact that killed the dinosaurs – ScienceMag.org
- Mike, don’t listen to Bill Nye about philosophy – Plato’s Footnote
- Mysterious chimpanzee behaviour could be ‘sacred rituals’ and show that chimps believe in god (Video) – Independent.co.uk
- Is there a monster in Cayuga Lake? New Wells College book looks at the legend – AuburnPub.com (Video: ‘The Legend of Firefly Marsh’ clip)
- An Extraordinary Nessie Story From 1990 – Glasgow Boy
- Richard Freeman: 2016 Thylacine Expedition – Still On The Track / ForteanZoology
- Found: Tiny Ghost Octopus – Atlas
Obscura - The Weirdest Cryptids That Turned Out To Be Real by Brent Swancer, Mysterious Universe
- Snake Problems of the Neurian Werewolves – EsoterX.com
- Fact or Fiction? The Government is Releasing Large Predators in Texas – Texas Cryptid Hunter
- Yeti Hunter Tom Slick’s 100th Birthday Celebration (Tom Slick birthday event, February 18, 2016, San Antonio, Texas) – CryptoZooNews.com
- Polish Pyramids: Ruins of Megalithic Tombs from the Time of Stonehenge Discovered in Poland – RiseEarth.com
- On Communism and Hellenism: An Archaeologist’s Perspective – NataliaVogeikoff.com
- King Arthur: An Intriguing New Book – Review by Nick Redfern – MysteriousUniverse.org
- The Elf King’s Death: The Tragedy of Aubrey Kerr McClendon – Loren Coleman, Copycat Effect (Twilight Language)
- Archaeological Suppression on the Giza Plateau and the Criminal Legacy of Dr. Zahi Hawass by fiercetruth4u, ParapoliticalJournal.com
- Actor Who Played The X-Files’ Yuri Yolkoff Dies – Loren Coleman, Copycat Effect (Twilight Language)
- Pope Aide Dies Mysteriously – Loren Coleman, Copycat Effect (Twilight Language)
- Name Game Killings Leave 5 Dead – Loren Coleman, Copycat Effect (Twilight Language)
- Colorado Looks to Broaden Therapists’ Power to Prevent School Shootings – Wall Street Journal
- Harvard Scientists: There May be an Ancient Earth Inside… Earth – 7Tales.net
- Michael Crichton Is Not Just A Novelist (PDF) by a Little Citizen of America – MilesWMathis.com
- Animal Ghosts And Paranormal Pets – JimHarold.com
- Dreams And Visions Of The Dying – Christopher Kerr’s TEDx talk
- Woman is Thankful She’s Been Blind Since Birth… Because Her Disability Allows Her To Speak To The Dead – Sun.co.uk
- A President Who Was a Medium – Michael Tymn, WhiteCrowBooks.com
- Uranium, orchards, and outlaws: the best hidden gems of Capitol Reef National Park – RoadTrippers.com
- Do Psychedelic Drug Laws Violate Human Rights? – The Atlantic
- Mysterious Symbols Appear on Colorado College Campuses – Mysterious Universe
-
Local rancher struggles with cow mutilations – Arizona Daily Sun
Source: Anomaly Archives eNews 3/8/2016
It was much later that Joan Jeffers – a devoted Pennsylvanian researcher of UFO and related phenomena – told me to get a hold of Bob Girard, saying he could find any book or periodical I might remember from the early days of sauceriana, or even material from other countries. Oddly enough, I was sort of in touch with Bob already. His former partner, the late Ron Bonds, had set up Illuminet Press expressing an interest in publishing my translation of Salvador Freixedo’s “Visionaries, mystics and contactees”, a great introduction to the Spanish Jesuit’s vast body of work on the paranormal. Bob’s wife Monica provided the cover art for the project, so when I picked up the phone to call Arcturus, no introduction was really necessary.
So it was that Bob helped me rebuild my collection of UFO books, which had been lost over the course of years, some lost over the course of international moves and others forsaken as new interests commanded my attention. Getting into “new” materials was never difficult thanks to Bob’s reviews, which made the Arcturus Books catalogue a joy to read – probably more so than a number of newsstand offerings available at the moment! Some descriptions are etched in my mind, like an old samizdat whose cover “depicted a hayseed peeing into a pond with a flying saucer hovering overhead” – I’m paraphrasing here, but I still smile at the laughter the description caused in me at the time.
1993 saw the birth of my first newsletter on “UFOs in Latin America and Spain” and Bob Girard was pleased to add it to Arcturus’s offerings, cautioning me not to charge too much for it, since “mystics never have any money”. The price point must’ve been right, as SAMIZDAT (as it was called) became a strong seller for Arcturus over a time frame of five years. When I announced that I the little newsletter was folding (its news stories rendered stale by the Internet), I told him I intended to come back with a new idea. “Whatever you do, make sure it’s good!” he said, and INEXPLICATA came out within months, available in print format for many years before the same situation – the immediacy offered by electronic sources – forced it to migrate to the web, where it has remained since 2003.
We didn’t see eye to eye on everything, though. The Chupacabras Diaries, my initial offering on Puerto Rico’s paranormal predator, didn’t really meet his approval. Bob thought the correct approach to take should have been a dismissive one. He particularly disliked a chapter bearing the title “It’s In the Trees- 
– SMiles Lewis / Founder
Membership Drive 2016
ForgottenBooks.com
“The book is a collection of stories set in New York City’s impoverished Five Points neighborhood, and first appeared in the New York Tribune in 1853.
Though it garnered some positive press for promoting morality, especially in religious newspapers (for example, the Christian Secretary of Hartford, Connecticut said “The Hot Corn stories are eloquent appeals in favor of temperance and virtue”), the book (and stage adaptations) were also the subject of much scorn by critics. The New York Herald faulted the book for “giving minute descriptions of life in fashionable houses of ill-fame, and entering into the details of seduction, licentiousness and debauchery, with a gusto, ill concealed by the pretence of morality.” The Southern Literary Messenger excoriated the book, proclaiming that “to say that the man who deliberately writes and prints such perilous and damnable stuff deserves a place in the penitentiary, is feebly to express our notion of the enormity of his offence.”
Inside the Artificial Universe That Creates Itself
more recently during his 
The recent passing of Supreme Court Justice 
Since its publication in 1995, 
Judith Brueske says, “The ‘Marfa Lights of west Texas have been called many names over the years, such as ghost lights, weird lights, mystery lights, or Chinati lights. The favorite place from which to view the lights is a widened shoulder on Highway 90 about nine miles east of Marfa…at this ‘official Marfa Lights viewing site’. The lights are most often reported as rather distant bright lights distinguishable from ranch lights and automobile headlights on Highway 67 (between Marfa and Presidio, to the south) primarily by their aberrant movements.”
February 8th, 2016 – Sadly, most archival work comes about as the result of the passing of other fellow seekers. This weekly newsletter will necessarily be regularly filled by news of the passing of various people of note in the wide variety of anomalous fields of inquiry covered by the Anomaly Archives. In our first weekly issue we noted the passing of Starman David Bowie. This week we pay homage to former astronaut, and founder of IONS (the Institute Of Noetic Science), 
“Douglas Curran has rediscovered the New World – with its own religion and a tribe of credulous believers no less brave than the Cree or the Wampanoag. A not-ready-for-prime-time cult that makes up in fervor what it lacks in style. One that seems to worship equally Ray Walston and Stephen Hawking.” 
This book from 1978 is one of many in our collection of Ancient Astronaut Theory books. The whimsical cover features an artist’s recreation of the alleged “device” given to the Israelites (by God?) and which allegedly sustained them during their forty year journey in the Sinai Desert.
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