Watch the Fifth Saturday Streamathon Archives (12/19/20)
Saturday, December 19th
- Matthew Alford & Robbie Graham – “MisConspiraceptions” [Postponed Until Further Notice]
- Nikita Kranda – “I Saw Something Weird: A conversation about regular people experiencing something they couldn’t explain” [Postponed Until Further Notice]
After Dark Virtual Drive-In Theater…
PRESENTER BIOS & TALK TITLES:
Matthew Alford – “Misconspiraceptions” (with Robbie Graham)
“Matthew Alford is a British writer and documentary producer. He studied a PhD at the University of Bath, which applied a propaganda model to Hollywood. He lectured in the department of Drama: Theatre, Film, and Television at the University of Bristol. He is the author of Reel Power: Hollywood Cinema and American Supremacy, The Writer with No Hands, and National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government Control in Hollywood.”
Greg Bishop – “Flying Saucers and the Right Brain: What Art Can Teach Us About the UFO Enigma”
Website: ItDefiesLanguage.com / Radio-Show: RadioMisterioso.com / Books
“In 1991, he co-founded a magazine called The Excluded Middle, which was a journal of UFOs, the paranormal, conspiracy, psychedelia and new science. His first book, Wake Up Down There! anthologized many of the articles and features. Greg’s second book was Project Beta, which documented a government campaign of disinfo perpetrated against an unsuspecting researcher. His third book, Weird California, was released in 2006. He also wrote for the famed UFO/paranormal site Ufomystic for five years. It Defies Language! released in 2016,is a collection of essays on UFOs, the government, and fringe issues and personalities. His show Radio Misterioso, (radiomisterioso.com) now in its 17th year, features interviews with fringe-topic researchers and occasionally, weird music. He also flies paragliders and is a licensed private pilot, as well as an aerial drone photographer.”
Robbie Graham – “Misconspiraceptions” (with Matthew Alford)
Websites: RobbieGraham.net / AugustNightPress.com / YouTube / Books
“Robbie Graham has pursued the UFO mystery for more than half his life. He has lectured around the world on the subject and has been interviewed for the BBC, Coast to Coast AM, Canal+ TV, Channel 4, and Vanity Fair, among many others. His articles have appeared in numerous publications, including The Guardian, New Statesman, Filmfax, and Fortean Times. He holds first class degrees in Film, Television and Radio Studies (BA hons) and Cinema Studies (MA) from Staffordshire University and the University of Bristol respectively. He is the author of Silver Screen Saucers: Sorting Fact from Fantasy in Hollywood’s UFO Movies (White Crow Books, 2015) and the editor of UFOs: Reframing the Debate (White Crow Books, 2017).”
Jeff Kripal – Discusses Anomalous Archives with SMiles Lewis
Websites: JeffreyJKripal.com / Department of Religion • Rice University / Center for Theory and Research at the Esalen Institute / Archives of the Impossible at Fondren Library’s Woodson Research Center (special collections)
“Jeffrey J. Kripal is the Associate Dean of the School of Humanities and holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University, where he chaired the Department of Religion for eight years and helped create the GEM Program, a doctoral concentration in the study of Gnosticism, Esotericism, and Mysticism that is the largest program of its kind in the world. He is the Associate Director of the Center for Theory and Research at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, where he also serves as Chair of the Board. He is the author of several books including, The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge, Secret Body: Erotic and Esoteric Currents in the History of Religions, Comparing Religions; Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal; Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred; Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion; The Serpent’s Gift: Gnostic Reflections on the Study of Religion; … He has also co-edited several volumes … on the history, science, psychology, and analysis of psychical experiences, Seriously Strange: Thinking Anew about Psychical Experiences; …on the history of Esalen and the American counterculture, On the Edge of the Future: Esalen and the Evolution of American Culture; …on the ethical critique of mystical traditions, Crossing Boundaries: Essays on the Ethical Status of Mysticism; … And others including The Super Natural: A New Vision of the Unexplained with Whitley Strieber. His present areas of writing and research include the articulation of a New Comparativism within the study of religion that will put “the impossible” back on the table again, a robust and even conversation between the sciences and the humanities, and the mapping of an emergent mythology or “Super Story” within paranormal communities and individual visionaries. He has also recently founded the Archives of the Impossible at Rice University.”
SMiles Lewis – Streamathon Host / Founder of the Anomaly Archives
Websites: SMilesLewis.com, AnomalyRadio.net, / Radio-Show: PsiOpRadio.com / Vodcast: Anomaly-NOW!
“Audio Production Administrator for the Texas State Library Talking Book Program. Past State Section Director for the Travis and Williamson County chapters of the Mutual UFO Network. Web designer and print publisher of E.L.F. Infested Spaces Journal of Possible Paradigms.
Miles served as facilitator for Austin’s UFO Experiencer Support Group for nearly ten years and has spoken to local and national radio / TV / print media. In 1995 he spoke at the national Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness conference on the subject of UFOs as a transformative paradigm. His interests in both the physical and folkloric research of parapsychology and ufology have led to his collecting and archiving of over 3000 books on these and other topics relevant to consciousness research and the founding of the Anomaly Archives, lending library of the Scientific Anomaly Institute.”
Nikita Kranda – ” I Saw Something Weird: A conversation about regular people experiencing something they couldn’t explain”
“NK Kranda is a southern California native now living in Texas. She went to school for Horticulture Sciences and graduated with highest honors. She then continued her education in the fields of psychology, PTSD and trauma therapies, art, biology, psychics, history, and shamanism. She currently works in experiencer research and preservation and has the honor of interviewing some of the most incredible people the field has to offer. Her interest in contactees and experiencers began when she volunteered as a MUFON chapter secretary in San Antonio. After writing way too many reports, she found her true interests were in the people that quietly came to meetings to tell an incredible story. She taught them to fight stigma, to never stop telling their story, and to honor themselves because they survived.”
Tui Snider – “Great Texas Airship Mystery of 1897”
Website: TuiSnider.com / YouTube
Tui enjoys speaking at conferences such as the International UFO Congress, and occasionally teaches classes based on her books at TCU. Her books and photos have been featured in many outlets, including Coast to Coast AM, LifeHack, WFAA TV, The National Museum of Funeral History, and Cult of Weird, among others.
Naomi & Richie West – “The Mandela Effect and An Eyewitness Account of Future Memory”
“Naomi and Richie are longtime friends of SMiles’ and the Anomaly Archives. In 2010 they helped bring CFZ Director, Jonathan Downes, to Austin, Texas for research and lectures.”
. . .
MOVIES & VIDEOS:
Brad Abrahams – Keep Folklore Alive & Love and Saucers
KEEP FOLKLORE ALIVE / LOVE & SAUCERS (Unreleased / 2017) 69min
Directed by Brad Abrahams
Brad Abrahams – “I am a filmmaker and commercial director from Canada, currently based in the USA. My all-consuming interests in weird science and general esoterica inspire my stories.”
MUSIC:
Ghoultown – Featuring Cryptozoologist Lyle Blackburn, TX
“Lyle Blackburn is a native Texan known for his work in writing, music, and film. He is the author of several acclaimed books, including “The Beast of Boggy Creek” and “Lizard Man,” whose subject matter reflects his life-long fascination with legends and sighting reports of unknown creatures. Lyle is also the founder of the rock band, Ghoultown, and narrator/producer of documentary films such as “The Mothman of Point Pleasant” and “Boggy Creek Monster.”
As a musician, Lyle has achieved similar success. His band Ghoultown has released eight albums, which have not only earned a loyal worldwide following, but found their way into movies, video games, and numerous live venues across the United States, Canada, and Europe. Highlights include an invitation to write a theme song for iconic horror maven, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. The song’s music video – featuring Elvira herself – was aired on her nationally syndicated show, Movie Macabre.”