New writing gig

It's been a few days since my last post, so I wanted to take an opportunity to give you readers an update on what I've been up to. Never fear I have a few projects in the pipeline that will return us to your regularly scheduled Forteania postings that you've all come to love so much. As many of you are already aware, in addition to blogging here at Forteania I also write a column for Tim Binnall at his Binnall Of America website that's entitled Fortean Ramblings. Well you can add another url to your list of places to find my writing. As of Monday August 6, I began writing for Disinfo.com. My first (and so far only) post went live Monday evening in celebration of Charles Fort's birthday. What better way to celebrate not only my new gig at Disinfo, but also Fort's birthday? Below I'll give you a snippet of that post, but you should really follow the link below to check out the whole thing.

Happy Birthday Mr. Fort!

August 6, 2012 marks the 138th birthday of the great cataloger of the strange and unusual Charles Fort. Writing in the early 20th century, Fort would pen a total of seven books in his lifetime. Two early works, X and Y, were sadly never published as the author burned them during one of his many bouts of depression. Another title, The Outcast Manufacturers, was a fiction book that enjoyed some moderate success. The works that have made him rather famous (or infamous depending upon who you ask) are The Book of the Damned, New Lands, Lo!, and Wild Talents. Through the use of the New York Public library, Fort set about to dig up the data he felt that science had too long neglected. Almost right from the beginning Fort laid out his intentions pretty clearly. In his first work, The Book of the Damned, Fort wrote:

“A Procession of the damned. By the damned, I mean the excluded. We shall have a procession of data that Science has excluded”

Follow this link in order to read the whole thing. Also be sure to keep checking back on Disinfo for more of my writing. That's all I have for now, tonight should see normal posting resume here. Until then, Stay Classy internets!

Magazine article updates!

I've mentioned a number of times on this blog in the past that I had been working on an article for a UFO magazine. If published, it would be my first article in such a medium. Needless to say I was pretty excited to get it finished. In addition to writing the article I was requested to get some illustrations made, so I roped Ashley into doing those for me. Well last night (finally!) I was able to send off the article and illustrations, and at this point I am only waiting to hear back from the editor if it will indeed be published. If it does I will certainly let you guys know which one it is, also if this works out (and even if it doesn't) I have to say that the process has certainly been a learning experience.

Much like this blog and of course my article over at Binnall of America, I have been trying to both improve my writing skills (which I hope have gotten better) and perhaps learn a thing or two. Hopefully we will hear back, sooner rather than later about the article. If not, I will simply try again. Also I have recently taken the plunge back into the dreaded 'facebook'. You are more than welcome to friend me if you wish. I suppose that's about all I have for tonight.

Oh before I forget one last little thing, I'm just about half-way through reading Steve Volk's Fringe-ology (which I can't recommend highly enough) so expect a review here in the next couple of days. Until next time this is your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher saying, stay classy Internet!

Great Daily Resources (or these sites don't suck)

There have been a few posts in the past that have demonstrated how I got frustrated with the Alien/UFO section on ATS, which if you haven't read yet you can find here and here. The conclusion that I came to after the first of the posts was that I will look for resources that I enjoy and that actually teach me a thing or two. Because beyond hopefully coming to a better understanding about Fortean topics, I'm really hoping to actually learn something from this endeavor. Because, if I'm not learning anything, really whats the point? So with this in mind allow me to take this post to plug some of the better resources for learning that I have come across thus far. Among them are some of the biggest influences on my current model of how the Fortean functions. These are sites that I check on a daily basis.(Also they are in no particular order by the way, they are simply in whatever order that I happen to remember them in).

First up is a blog that I highly recommend people check out. Paul Kimball's The Other Side of Truth. This blog has a little bit of everything; UFOs, politics, religion, philosophy, and most importantly Paul Kimball's transformation as he stays on top of the Ufological/Paranormal world (but mostly as an observer). Paul Kimball is a film director whose credits are far too many to list, but the main one I would recommend (and do regularly) would be his 2007 film Best Evidence. It collects the 10 best UFO cases, and you would be hard pressed to disagree with the choices he has made.

Next is one I only discovered recently, and that is Who Forted?. This is a blog that takes a look at the realm of the Fortean in the only sane way you can, with a big sense of humor. They definitely seem to know there stuff as far as Fortean topics are concerned, but at the same time they have an excellent sense of humor about all of it. (For example check out their review of Syfy's Haunted Collector Reality TV series.) When not openly mocking people, which I mean come on who doesn't love that right?, they have some really cool stuff up on their site daily. Definitely a must visit daily site.

One of the better Paranormal podcasts in existence is Tim Binnall's Binnall of America. The show, which has been running now for I think 6 years, has literally interviewed everything one in the realm of esoterica that you can think of. And even some folks that you can't think of, or in my case may never have heard of until they came on Tim Binnall's show (Bruce Rux I'm looking at you). The show mostly comes out on a bi-weekly basis and is a definite must listen to.

In addition to an amazing series of interviews, the show also is home to some of the best writing on  fringe topics in the columns section of the site. Leslie, Regan Lee, Richard Thomas, Marla Pena, Richelle Hawks, Tina Sena, Bruce Priddy, and to a lesser degree yours truly the original Closet Anomalist Tony Morrill. With the exception of Bruce Priddy and myself, the other writers have archives that go back years that are full of all kinds of Fortean goodness.

On the topic of podcasts, Greg Bishop's Radio Misterioso is another must listen to. Especially now that Greg Bishop seems to have gotten his old show archives sorted out and seems to be adding them back to his site. Radio Misterioso is great because, in addition to some of the coolest music you are likely to ever hear, Greg Bishop interviews a lot of cool people. The conversations always seem to go in weird and unexpected places, and I can easily say that this show has introduced me to many of the people that have shaped my understanding and reasoning on Fortean topics. Definitely should check on this one daily.

Along those same lines, Greg Bishop writes for another site that some BOA writers and Nick Redfern all contribute to. UFO Mystic is a great place to visit at least semi-daily for all sorts of great writings by Nick Redfern, Greg Bishop, and a seemingly never ending supply of contributing writers. All in all a great site to visit.

As a general all around great resource for news, there are actually two that tie. First is Daily Grail, which isn't just a news site but that is like my favorite part of it. Seriously I check there daily for a great list of crazy Fortean news stories. The second one is very similar to this, The Anomalist. Like Daily Grail, the Anomalist collects all kinds of random Fortean goodies for you the reader to enjoy. You know now that I think about it, Fortean Times also has this same kind of feature. A Daily roundup of weird news.

Well that about wraps it up. The sites that I have listed above are the ones I visit on a daily basis in order to get my Fortean fix. If you have any suggestions for sites that I should visit, please let me know.

News follow up

I related in last nights early post, that after weeks of procrastinating I was finally able to complete the article that I will be submitting to a UFO magazine (to be named once confirmation has been received that the article is being published for sure). For many reasons I had put off completing the article, some legitimate others not so much. Either way yesterday around 2 in the afternoon I had finally completed the damn thing. Once it was done I wanted someone to read over it, you know to make sure that I didn't sound like a complete imbecile (which is something I suspect when or if I ever re-read previous posts here at Forteania or my column Fortean Ramblings over at Binnall of America).

My girlfriend, who is my unofficial editor, was at work so that ruled her out. My brother has an extremely bizarre sleep schedule and likely wouldn't be awake for another few hours and I really wanted to get the rough draft sent in the event that the magazine editor decided that they no longer wanted to use my article. Then I thought about a friend of mine who is very supportive in all of my writing exploits (he even listened to every episode of my very short lived podcast I did with another friend). I texted him to see if he too was at work or at home. His response was that he would be out of town for the remainder of the day. At this point I was so desperate for anyone to read my article that I actually contemplated running out into the streets and flagging down cars just to have someone read the damn thing.

Luckily for me it is unbearably hot outside right now where I live, so that option never left the planning stages. Instead I thought, 'Fuck it I will just send the article anyway'. Kind of a lay it all on the line scenario. Plus I had already decided that if, for whatever reason, the magazine didn't want the article I would just sell it to another magazine. So with all of this in mind I emailed the editor my rough draft of the article and spent the rest of the day not thinking about the email at all.....




I wish. As soon as I sent the email, I immediately regretted the decision and wanted to call it back. Unfortunately I'm unaware of any way to So the rest of the afternoon was spent with me secretly checking my phone for an email response. Even though I knew it was unlikely that he would have gotten back to me so quickly. I managed to more or less go about a normal daily routine. Posted up a couple of things up here, watched a movie or two, and read some more of Wake Up Down There: The Excluded Middle Anthology. Finally I went to bed pretty late. When I woke up just a few short hours later (I have a terrible sleep cycle, if I'm lucky I will get 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night) and there was an email waiting for me on the phone.

I checked and, as you could probably guess, it was from the magazine editor. With much trepidation I slowly opened the email, took a deep breath and slowly began to scan the message. Immediately I breathed a huge sigh of relief, he liked the article a lot and thought it was really good. I was ecstatic. Now the only thing that stands between me and being a published writer are a few illustrations that my girlfriend (remember she is also my editor) is working on for the article. Once she has these completed, I will send everything to the editor and hopefully not too long after you will be able to pick up a magazine from the newsstands that has an article written by yours truly.


OK well thats all for now readers, I will return in a little while with some more posting (and likely more photos, because photos are fun). Until then remember “Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you”

New Fortean Ramblings column up at BOA

Hey there loyal blog readers. As many of you probably know in addition to writing this (wonderful) (amazing) blog, I also have a column over at Binnall of America entitled 'Fortean Ramblings". Well, while you wait for tonights new post here at Forteania, be sure to stop over and check out "Reinventing the Wheel". Then be sure to stop back by a little later tonight for a new post here.

To join or not to join, that is the question.

    I related a few weeks back how I was trying to stop being so much of a Closet Anomalist. Aside from my continued blogging here at Forteania, the easiest way I felt that I could really 'come out' so to speak was by joining a Fortean group. The one that immediately sprang to my mind, as I'm sure it does to other's as well, was MUFON. The Mutual UFO Network is arguably one of the best know Ufological groups in the US, if not in the world. I have to be honest though as soon as I thought about MUFON I almost immediately discarded the idea. MUFON has had a lot of issues in the last few years, and many of the more public faces of the organization would probably not feel out of place in a Church of Ufology.

  However my need to burst out of my shell and finally be able to speak openly with people about all of these strange topics overrode that initial gut reaction I had, so I sought out to join my local MUFON chapter. As I related in a recent post (see Closet Anomalist/Fortean updates!) when I went to the main MUFON website, it offers you links to your local chapters website. So I followed the links to the South Carolina Chapter of MUFON's home page and for just a few minutes I though I had been transported back to 1998. Seriously check it out and see if you disagree. Go on, I'll wait. OK are you back? Can you believe that? I mean I realize that my blog isn't exactly the most Flash or Java heavy site out there, but at least its better than a block of text that apparently hasn't been updated since 1999.   

Even after this bit of disillusionment, I still decided to struggle through. I figured that maybe they had just been so busy with meetings and investigations that perhaps they didn't have time to fix up the website or hire some web builder to do it for them. With this in my mind I called both numbers located on the site, neither one returned an answer. It was a sad moment for your friendly neighborhood Closet Anomalist. But it was then that I noticed there was an email address that you could use to contact the State Director! I set about emailing the director, I asked the director if (1) The local MUFON group was still holding meetings, and (2) if so where/when and how could I attend?   

Thankfully the director was able to return my email within about 11 hours, which was really prompt and I was very happy about that. Unfortunately however the answer I got wasn't exactly what I was hoping for. Basically she informed me that my local chapter of MUFON is no longer holding meetings and that if I wanted to do anything with MUFON I would have to join the website. Except that is exactly what I didn't want to do. Remember I wanted to actually meet people in meat space in order to discuss these kinds of Fortean topics. Since I didn't have any alternative I signed up for the mailing list, after all I'm not going to pay their membership fee cause I'm cheap, and so I started receiving emails from MUFON.       

That brings me back to today, on Monday I received an email from MUFON describing one of the speakers that they would be having at the annual MUFON Symposium. The particular speaker that they had singled was Barbara Lamb. Now Lamb is, evidently, a licensed Psychotherapist who has had 21 years of research in the Ufological field. The gist of her speech is going to be on the 'Alien-Human Hybrid' problem that is facing humanity. Quoting from the actual email “She will describe the methods used to achieve hybridization, how long hybridization has been occurring, the reasons given by the ETs for creating hybrid offspring, and the success rate and failure rate in creating hybrids who could live successfully on earth. She will give examples of ETs genetically modifying human babies in their mothers' wombs, resulting in exceptional children such as Star Kids, Indigo Children, and Crystal Children. She will mention alleged hybrid people who are already living on earth, some of whom she has met.”  

That pretty much sealed the deal for me right then and there. Having just finished writing an (apparently successful) post about the 'First Church of Ufology', I actually almost threw up when I read the email. This was almost exactly the kind of stuff that I think is wrong with Ufology. I mean here is a group that gives off the veneer of being a respectable scientific organization but they are letting a lady speak about what basically amounts to a part of a belief system. The email reads, at least to me, like something you might find in a New Age magazine. Not that there is anything wrong with that necessarily but I mean come on, Indigo Children, really?  

The email basically helped me come to the conclusion that MUFON is not an organization that I necessarily want anything to do with. While it may be good for some people, it is definitely not the organization for me. At this point I seem to be stuck on the Internet as my only outlet for my Fortean shenanigans. I'm not complaining, I have loved doing this blog, and its given me chance to talk to some cool people in the Fortean field. I may have to remain a Closet Anomalist a little while longer, in the mean time of course I will continue blogging here and writing for Binnall of America. Well that's all for tonight, this is Tony your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher saying have a good one.

Why do I continue?

    Many times I have often wondered why it is exactly that I stick around in the realm of Forteania, and especially Ufology. I mean I know the reason why I got into all of this mess in the first place (see my first column of Fortean Ramblings over at Binnall of America entitled 'Origin Story' for more), but why is it that day after day I never get tired of all of the countless shenanigans? Why after so many years do I still find myself listening with renewed interest as yet another explanation is offered for Roswell (follow the link for the latest one)? How come it is that even though it is disappointing, I still sometimes watch the 'lights in the sky' videos that are so often ridiculed on YouTube? Is it because 'I want to Believe'?

    Some might say yes this is exactly what is going on. Your friendly neighborhood Closet Anomalist suffers from yet another delusional belief system that causes him to seek proof for the very precepts he holds dear. Well I would like to think that is wrong. Of course it's true that on some level I do have some opinion about theses topics: be they UFO, Ghost, ET, or what have you, because why the hell else would I have a blog or a column over at BOA? (Now is where somebody will likely interject and say, well Tony it's simply because you like to 'hear' yourself talk. Which I guess is true, but it's not the only reason I am doing this damn thing.)

    No I would like to think that my intentions are far more noble (who doesn't right?) I want to find out what the ubiquitous 'Truth' is. Now bear in mind that's truth with a capital 'T' of course. Which in my mind would entail finding out just what exactly is behind all of the assorted Fortean phenomenon that I enjoy reading about so much. I would like to think that no matter what the explanations are for the phenomenon, no matter how potentially 'mundane' they may turn out to be, that I would still be willing and able to accept this reality. Take for instance, if somehow one could prove all sightings of unidentified craft spotted by even professional pilots, as nothing more than say some kind of atmospheric hallucination, I would be willing to accept that.

    Unfortunately however many players on either side of the fence, be they 'True Believer's' or 'Debunkers', are not willing to have this kind of open and honest dialogue about some arguably bizarre interactions are species has or had with something that many would argue we don't completely understand yet. As I have stated almost ad nauseum at this point, the problems with both groups is that they already have the answers that they are looking for. Which is fine if you are in a religion or a religious group, and that is what these two camps are I would argue. They both have their core set of belief's, or well in the case of the Debunker's 'disbeliefs', that they hold to be self evident. For many of the True Believer crowd, UFOs are ET spacecraft. Whereas for the Debunker's UFOs are misinterpretation of natural phenomenon. But you know maybe, just maybe the answer lies some where in the middle.

    Perhaps the phenomenon is comprised of both simultaneously. A pilot spots a UFO (in this sense meaning an artificial craft, that is not just a natural phenomenon), but then the next night sees a strange light in the sky, that turns out to be headlights reflecting off an air pocket or something. The latter by no means invalidates the former. This I think leads ultimately to why I am still here. Why I still put up with the shenanigans, is because I think it ultimately reminds us that we really still don't know everything. And that mystery is certainly enough for me to put up with all of the bullshit that comprises the field of Fortean Phenomena and specifically Ufology.

No Rapture talk here!

Originally I was going to write about how we are all still here and thus apparently no Rapture occurred. Then I realized that there would be a lot of that kind of talk going on and I didn't really want to delve into that arena. Instead I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you guys for sticking around with me for almost two weeks now.
    

Tomorrow (Sunday May 22)  will mark the second full week in a row that I have blogged everyday. I am really proud of myself for sticking to this. Some days it is much easier to post than others and especially now with my classes and everything, but I am going to continue giving it a try. I have been dreading completing my magazine article for some time now. I think that, much like when I first contacted Tim Binnall about writing an article for his site (see Fortean Ramblings), I am really nervous that the magazine will turn me down.
   

Like most people I am fairly critical of the work that I produce, but my blog seems to be getting a decent number of hits which is definitely a  positive thing. I have a lot of ideas and theories about all manner of Fortean phenomena, and it seems that in today's modern society you basically have two options to share your opinions.  You can either produce a Podcast (which I did for a very short time) or blog like I am doing now.
  

  I suppose that in a way I am hoping to help any young people that are interested in these topics to realize that they are not always as black and white as they are often portrayed. I know that, like I recounted yesterday, for me Fortean things used to be pretty simplistic. UFOs were alien spacecraft, ghosts were the 'spirits' of dead relatives back to see the living, and Bigfoot was just a large smelly ape that hadn't been discovered yet. But after a few more years intense research, I have come to a tentative conclusion that those models don't really seem to fit all of the data.
   

As a full disclosure thing I have only ever investigated in person one thing. My town has a road where, (and I'm sure you have heard this before), a school bus was stalled on train tracks and the train was unable to stop, so that all of the children died. Now, so the story goes, if you stall out on the tracks 'something' will push your vehicle out of the way. Well in order to test this theory we put talcum powder on the trunk of the car and 'stalled' out on the tracks. Sadly nothing happened. This may have been for a number of reasons, and not just that this whole is likely an urban legend. Perhaps the spirits realized that we were not in any real danger, as the car hadn't actually stalled out and I don't feel like the tracks are used all that much anymore either.
   

My point in telling that story was so that you the reader can realize that I am definitely not an investigator, nor am I an experiencer (though I certainly have tried see my entry entitled 'Be careful what you wish for') of any strange phenomena. What I am simply is a Fortean Philosopher and a bit of a Closet Anomalist. But that in no way invalidates my opinions on these topics.
    

After all I have read most of the books that have been written on this topic and seen the majority of the data. I really believe that this is enough to come up with some working models of what may be going on. On the same token of course there is nothing wrong with actual field investigations. Because we wouldn't have all of the data in those books that I have read if nobody did the actual legwork. But that doesn't make them any more or less important than those of us Closet Anomalists who sit on forums, or blogs, and try to come up with theories that we can work with.
  

  Well to keep this short and sweet, I would just like to say thank you to all of the readers out there that keep coming back day in and day out. Maybe you can learn something from me, and perhaps just as importantly I can learn something from you all as well.  This is your friendly neighborhood Close Anomalist Tony, saying have a good one.

Closest Anomalist no more?

Today marks a full week since I opened back up my Blog and attempted to write at least one post each day. And I am happy to report that I have been very successful. You know with the exception of some unexpected ‘downtime’ that occurred earlier in the week. So far I have put up a few posts each night that I don’t think sacrifice content by trying to write every night.

I have to say that even though I have only blogged seriously for the last week I can already see a big change in myself. First, I feel like my writing has gotten more coherent and also possibly enjoyable to read (hey a guy can dream). The old saying goes, of course, that practice can make perfect. So making myself post something to the blog each night has made me write a lot. I think that if you were to go back to my earlier stuff when I had first started this blog (back in October) you would be able to see a lot of improvement. It doesn’t hurt that I have also written a bunch of articles for my column, Fortean Ramblings, over at Binnall of America. Although only two have been posted up so far, I have already written something like 4 or 5 total.

The second change I can see is that I am becoming more confident in having people read my work. This is most evidenced by the fact that I figured what the hell why not send in some of my writing samples to see if a magazine would publish it? So far the response seems great, so now I just have to not be lazy (or worse procrastinate) and get the article re-tooled so that they can have it to publish. As of right now that‘s not looking so great, I am finding it terribly difficult to concentrate in order to write the article. As a matter of fact I am writing this post at the moment rather than working on the article which is actually open in another window. Oh well as much as things change some things always stays the same. Although after I post this blog my hope is to make a large dent into the article tonight, because as of Wednesday I will finally be returning to school to finish my Biology degree.

The final change that I have begun to see in myself is that I am starting to not be as hesitant about admitting my fascination with these kinds of topics. Or in other words maybe I am becoming less of a Closet Anomalist/Fortean. Just today at breakfast in a restaurant I found myself freely discussing what I think is the origin of at least some of the UFO phenomena (here is a hint as to what I think the origin is, they aren't from Zeta Reticula). The point being I didn’t lower my voice into a whisper as though I were discussing some kind of dirty shameful thing. After all if the visitor information that I have seen for my blog has told me anything, it’s that there is a worldwide interest in these topics. Why should I feel ashamed because I am interested in mysteries? I mean come on let’s be honest we are not talking about belief systems here. Although I loved David Duchovny’s character from The X-Files I don’t just ‘Want to believe’, I want to know or learn about these mysteries.

I think that was what had me being a Closet Anomalist in the first place. For the majority of people any interest in these kinds of topics, especially UFOs/Aliens, was automatically assumed to be a belief. Hell the question that a lot of people have asked me over the years is “Do you believe in aliens?”, as if it were a replacement religion of some sort (which I suppose for some people it is). But I don’t ‘believe’ in UFOs. I know for a fact that certain qualified persons have seen craft that they are unable to identify and which seem to perform maneuvers that are current technology are incapable of replicating. That doesn’t necessarily scream alien as the answer however.

I could go on and on about this part but I think I will save it for another post, and finish this one up by saying thank you. Thank you to whoever has been reading this for the last week, because of you I have been able to have a place to get out some of my thoughts and opinions on some Fortean topics. Also I have been able to get enough confidence to send some work to a magazine. And of course I will be continuing to do this for the conceivable future. Who knows maybe one of these day’s I will finally step fully out of the closet.

Back from the dead?

So its been a long time since I have posted anything here. I doubt I even have anyone reading it, but I figured what the hell. In between my column Fortean Ramblings which you can find over at Binnall of America, and my always hilarious tweets (check the side bar to follow me on twitter) I will be posting random assortments of Fortean junk on here. Also I am going to re-release my earlier posts in cleaned up formats so that hopefully they can be given a second chance at being read by someone. Till the next post (in the next few minutes) This is Tony saying take it easy bitches.