CHAMELEO and the Navy's Electromagnetic Warfare Range in the Lost Coast of California

A couple of months ago, the West Coast Action Alliance posted a detailed warning about the plans of the US Navy to transform the state of Washington's Olympic National Forest into a permanent "Electromagnetic Warfare Range."  Those of you who have read my book Chameleo, particularly pages 260-264, will be interested in the following excerpt from the WCAA's September update on this issue: 

"The US Navy plans to permanently use and periodically close large swathes of the Olympic National Forest, along with airspace over it and the Olympic National Park as well as the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, for electromagnetic warfare testing and training. They are also ramping up their use of explosives and sonar and training activities in the waters surrounding the Olympic Peninsula. Their stated goal is to turn the western portion of the Olympic Peninsula and surrounding waters into an Electromagnetic Warfare Range. This means electronic warfare will be practiced over our homes, public lands and waters, and massive sonar and explosive activity will occur in the rich waters surrounding Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, in perpetuity.
 
"The Navy’s Northwest Training Range extends from the innermost reaches of Puget Sound to the outer coast of Washington, and south to the Lost Coast region of California in northern Mendocino County [emphasis mine]. It goes out 250 nautical miles from the coast. Just the ocean part encompasses an area larger than the State of California. A lawsuit resulted in some concessions by the Navy to respect biologically sensitive areas in Hawaii and Southern California until 2018, but no such concessions apply in the Pacific Northwest."

Note the fact the that the southernmost edge of this Training Range is located in "the Lost Coast region of California," the very same area where so many anomalous (and ostensibly "paranormal") events were witnessed by residents of Humboldt County in 2011, as chronicled in the final five pages of Chameleo and the September 2013 issue of Fortean Times Magazine.

To read the WCAA's entire report, click HERE.

Joachim Hagopian's "The War Drums are Beating"

A fascinating analysis of Saturday night's brazen and dramatic "Light in the Sky" display over Los Angeles has been offered by Joachim Hagopian of the Centre of Research on Globalization in a 11-11-15 article entitled "The War Drums are Beating:  Two Trident Missiles Launched Over Los Angeles.  Act of Provocation Directed Against Russia and China?"  What follows is a brief excerpt:

"[...] now the US missile launches are the latest events in this highly disturbing series of incidents intentionally provoking rising global tensions. The BBC headline read 'Mysterious Light in the Sky Spooks California.' Posted YouTube videos, Twitter and Facebook went into overdrive with the West all abuzz over the strange unannounced occurrence. The US Navy’s decision to fire off a thermonuclear missile (unarmed or not) into the western skies overlooking Los Angeles was sending a clear indisputable message to the entire world. By making it such a public spectacle witnessed by hundreds of thousands in America’s second largest metropolis, Washington’s clear intention was launching another recklessly alarming shot across the bow aimed directly at warning Russia and China to 'back off or else.'

"The range of the Trident II missiles launched is 4000 nautical miles, within full reach of Beijing. What is most evident is that the US government is reacting to Russia and China’s challenge to US global dominance as the world’s most powerful nation on earth. The message is clear – continue challenging America’s previously uncontested belligerent rule over the planet and the US will instigate a global war.

"These unprecedented reckless events also culminate last week’s three Congressional subcommittee hearings with top warmongering brass that didn’t even bother to question if a world war can be avoided but already presumed it can’t and won’t [...].  Meanwhile, as part of its global war prepping, a massive six week NATO exercise begun last month entered its final week involving 36,000 troops, 200 aircraft and 60 ships spanning air, land and sea in three countries in the largest NATO war games in thirteen years.

"Strategically timed just hours prior to Saturday’s missile launch from the nearby neocon holy grounds of the Ronald Reagan Library, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter reiterated the US position that it will not tolerate Russia and China 'challenging the world order.' The United States is determined to reign supreme in keeping its sole world superpower status at all cost amidst the rising power of the East vowing to stand up both economically and militarily to America’s ruthless unipolar dominance. Unlike the first cold war when the US was reluctantly at least willing to share a balance of power of deterrence, the arrogant policymakers today are rigidly opposed to sharing global power with Russia and China."

To read Hagopian's entire article, click HERE.

The Attack of the Camouflage Midgets

Chameleo mavens, please take note:  According to WYFF in South Carolina, "camouflage midgets" are attacking people in Spartanburg County, South Carolina.  Here are the opening paragraphs of Stephanie Towers' 11-10-15 report:

"Deputies responded to a 911 call Sunday from a couple who said they were seeing possums and people jumping out of their refrigerator and microwave, according to an incident report.

"Spartanburg County deputies said they could not find the address the couple initially gave the 911 dispatcher, but eventually found Brandon Terry and Casey Fowler. The couple said they accidentally gave the wrong address, but had called 911 several times throughout the night.

"The report said the couple had called 911 five times during the night.

"The deputy who responded to the calls asked the couple if they were on drugs and they told him no, the report said.

"Terry and Fowler told the deputy they had pictures of worms coming out of the floor of their vehicle and had pictures of 'midgets' and other people dressed in camouflage."
  
I do hope these midgets are being paid overtime for being forced to work on a Sunday.  To read Towers' entire report, click HERE.

If you see any "camouflaged midgets" yourself on this pleasant Wednesday evening, please do wish them a Happy Veterans Day and remember to add, "Thank you for your service!"  Where would America be without their staunch vigilance?

UFOs Over Southern California!

Last night, at 6:02 P.M., an eyewitness in San Pedro reported to Cryptoscatology.com the following UFO sighting (a phenomenon that was also seen by hundreds of other eyewitnesses along the West Coast and beyond):  "I just came  out of my house, facing south, and there was some kind of object being followed by some other huge vehicle.  The other object was streaking across the sky--I mean, literally; it was like a meteor, but not moving as fast.  It was orange.  Then it must have gone through clouds.  It created this intense light, a vortex of water vapor.  I think it shot off west.  It had a blue aura or haze around it."  

The eyewitness took a series of photos, which I've included below:

The official military explanation for this phenomenon can be found in a CNN report entitled "Mystery Light Freaks Out Southern California Residents":  "The tests were part of a scheduled, ongoing system evaluation test.  Launches are conducted on a frequent, recurring basis to ensure the continued reliability of the system.  Each test activity provides valuable information about our systems, thus contributing to assurance in our capabilities."

According to Adam Carlson's People.com report entitled "No UFO Here!  Mysterious Flying Object Seen in Southern California Was Just a Missile Test":   "[A] Trident II missile was fired as scheduled from a submarine off the coast of Southern California, as part of an ongoing system evaluation, a Navy spokesman told the [San Diego Union-Tribune]."

First of all, if such missile launches do indeed occur on a "frequent, recurring basis," why would Southern California residents be "freaking out" about it?  Needless to say, phenomena that occur on a "frequent, regular basis" could not, ipso facto, inspire "panic and speculation," which are the very words used in the first sentence of Joe Sutton's aforementioned CNN report.  (Click HERE to read Sutton's entire article.)

Second, since the phenomenon was seen as far away as "Arizona and Nevada" (according to Carlson's aforementioned report), we must assume that Navy submarines shoot Trident II missiles over densely populated areas on a "frequent, regular basis," which seems peculiar when "the continued reliability of the system" could just as easily be tested by shooting the missile over the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean instead of sending it on a route that would force it to make a dramatic, glowing arc over at least three states.

Third, the Navy's official statement does not explain the presence of the second "huge vehicle" sighted by the San Pedro eyewitness quoted above.

Fourth, we know from experience that the "military exercise" cover story is a boilerplate excuse intended to distract attention away from unexplainable phenomena, as in the case of the mysterious March 1997 Phoenix Lights.  The possibility that such a cover story is also being used in this case is one worth considering.  

Finally, I would direct your attention to my 7-13-15 post entitled "Long Beach Fireball" for further information about the long history of UFO phenomena linked to the Long Beach/San Pedro area.

CHAMELEO ENDORSED BY BELA LUGOSI'S GHOST!

CHAMELEO ENDORSED BY SATAN!

Breaking News!!!:  While vacationing on Earth on All Hallow’s Eve, none other than Lucifer himself purchased a copy of Chameleo and was reportedly astonished by its contents.  “By crikey, if I were you I’d purchase this book NOW,” said the Prince of Darkness, “or I’ll suck your soft, pulpy souls through your eye sockets!  Mahalo!!!”  Ignore the reading recommendations of He Who Calls Himself “Aloha Satan™” at your own peril, my friends.  So be a clever mortal and buy a copy of Chameleo by clicking HERE post-haste!!!

CRYPTOSCATOLOGY HALLOWEEN HORRORTHON!

As part of my continuing investigation into the curious astral realm known as “cinema,” the official 2015 CRYPTOSCATOLOGY HALLOWEEN HORRORTHON kicked off on October 1^st with my viewing of the recent Blu-ray release of Arnold Laven’s The Monster That Challenged the World (1957), and culminated in Guillermo del Toro’s latest film, Crimson Peak (2015).  In between these two grotesque and arabesque bookends, you will find directly below an eclectic, semi-random assortment of psychopaths, aliens, ghouls, and revenants of unforeseen shapes, forms and temperaments.  If you would like to retrace my steps through this peculiar Grand Guignol, feel free to watch the following twenty-two flicks in the precise order delineated below….

1.  The Monster That Challenged the World (1957).   This is, in my humble opinion, one of the best "giant monster" movies ever made—definitely up there with Them! and the original Godzilla.

2.  Son of Frankenstein (1939).  According to Osbie Feel, a character in Thomas Pynchon’s novel Gravity’s Rainbow, this is one of the five best films ever made.  Who am I to disagree with a character in a Thomas Pynchon novel?

3.  The Mad Magician (1954).  This bloodstained thriller stars Vincent Price as a vengeful illusionist with a penchant for applying a buzzsaw to his many enemies and benefits from the deft direction of John Brahm, who also directed the brilliant 1940s horror flicks, The Lodger and Hangover Square.

4.  Tales of Terror (1962).  This Edgar Allan Poe adaptation stars Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Basil Rathbone, features a script by Richard Matheson, and is directed by Roger Corman.  Conspiratologists, take note:  This was one of many films for which Hollywood hypnotist Dr. William Jennings Bryan III served as a technical consultant; the Good Doctor is even given prominent screen credit at the end of the film.  According to Jonn Christian and William Turner’s well-researched book The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, only a few years later Dr. Bryan would hypnotize Sirhan Sirhan into assassinating Robert Kennedy.

5. 12 to the Moon (1960).  This one was written by DeWitt Bodeen, who also scripted such classic Val Lewton films as Cat People, Curse of the Cat People, and The Seventh Victim.  Though not the most enervating flick ever made, this definitely qualifies as a “UFO Disclosure Film”—i.e., a movie that subtly unveils the ostensible truth about the alien presence on Earth via fiction.  This flick is filled with alien hieroglyphics, human and animal abductions, underground lunar cities, alien telepathy, an Israeli astronaut who's convinced that reports of extraterrestrials are being manufactured by foreign powers for psychological warfare purposes, global cooling created by alien technology, a strange artifact called "The Medea Stone," and the spectacle of Tom Conway--the most British actor who ever lived--playing a Russian astronaut... sadly, it all sounds more fascinating than it really is, but nonetheless this film is not without points of interest for the cryptoscatology enthusiast.

6.  Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell (1968).  This is the weirdest, most psychedelic Japanese horror film to which I've ever been subjected... imagine all the Airport movies you've ever seen, but add in George Adamski UFOs, airline terrorists, hypnotism, sentient protoplasm, and a face-vagina that oozes the Apocalypse... excellent, excellent, excellent... and, Jesus, what a title!... oh, and needless to say, it's definitely a UFO Disclosure Film... Big Time UFO Disclosure Film....

7.  Hold That Ghost (1941).  "Oh... a snooty sort of a fellow!"

8.  Invisible Agent (1942).  At the behest of an O.S.S.-like intelligence agency, post-Pearl Harbor, a patriotic American agrees to use his experimental invisibility technology to infiltrate the Nazis during World War II.  For obvious reasons, this film should be of interest to fans of Chameleo. 

9.  Behind the Mask (1932).  Though technically not a horror film, nonetheless this was Boris Karloff's first post-Frankenstein role, his co-star is Edward Van Sloan (Dr. Waldman in Frankenstein) who's playing the role of a murderous, drug-dealing surgeon, and a key scene in the film involves a surreptitious dope drop-off that occurs at none other than Montauk Point in Long Island!  (Fans of Preston Nichols and Peter Moon’s Montauk books, please take note.)

10.  The Guilty Generation (1931).  Again, technically this is not a horror film, though it does play an important role in cinematic horror history.  Reportedly, this is the movie Karloff was working on when director James Whale spotted him in the Universal commissary and decided he would make the perfect Monster in Frankenstein... consequently edging Bela Lugosi out of the production entirely.

11.  The Terror of the Tongs (1961).  A powerful secret society known as The Red Dragon—led by a Chinese Christopher Lee—incites bloody chaos in 1910 Hong Kong, and now it's up to a lone, intrepid White Man to clean the clocks of these inscrutable, flinty-eyed rapscallions... great fun!

12.  The Devil Bat (1940).  “Imbecile!  Bombastic ignoramous!”  Just one of many wonderful lines uttered by Bela Lugosi in this Poverty Row horror classic filmed just after Lugosi’s Big Comeback in Universal’s Son of Frankenstein.  Who on Earth wouldn’t like this?  By the way, this film was one of the main inspirations for my novella, "The Fallen Nun," which can be found in my 2014 collection, Spies and Saucers.

13.  Scream of Fear (1961).  A Hammer horror film featuring Christopher Lee, a superior entry in what I call the Diabolique sub-genre... one of the many, many psychological suspense films clearly inspired by the overwhelming success of Clouzot's 1955 film Diabolique (the first film to have a "twist" ending, as we think of it today), and that would include Hitchcock's Vertigo... in fact, the multi-layered, nesting-Russian-doll twists at the end of Scream of Fear might be a tad more plausible that the ones in Vertigo....

14.  The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964).  Another Hammer horror film... the Mummy kicks ass again in turn-of-the-century London!

15.  The Living Skeleton (1968).  Val Lewton horror... Japanese-style!  The most atmospheric use of rubber bats and rubber skeletons you're ever likely to see.  A spooky lighthouse, a phantom ship, a mad doctor, bottles of experimental acid, murderous pirates, and ghost twins.  What more could you want?  Yes, this is the real deal all right.  How come the best films on this particular list... so far... have been Japanese?

16.  Genocide (1968).  Merely saying that this is a film in which "insects attack the Earth" would not accurately describe the Ultra High Strangeness of this Japanese horror epic combining strains of international espionage, nightmarish psychedelia, psycho-sexual subplots, rampant paranoia, misplaced H-bombs, and mass murdering mutant insects.  Yes, indeed, another winner from our inscrutable friends in the East.  This fever dream was directed by Kazui Nihonmatsu, who also directed The X from Outer Space the year before (though The X from Outer Space pales in comparison to the slipstream-apocalypse on display here).  Genocide might very well rival Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell in terms of pure unpredictable weirdness.  

17.  Valley of the Dragons (1961).  In 1881 Algeria, two gentlemen about to fight a duel with pistols are abruptly swept up in the tail of a passing comet and deposited in a prehistoric land filled with dinosaurs and neanderthals.  WTF?!?  

18.  A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014).  An atmospheric, cinematic tone poem about a vampire stalking the streets of Bad City, a mythical town in the Middle East.  This film benefits from a meditative, stately pace and noirish black and white cinematography (two qualities ostensibly verboten in mainstream Hollywood).  Think Carl Dreyer's hallucinatory Vampyr of the 1930s rather than the 21st century tepid vampires of the box-office-busting Twilight series.

19.  The Innocents (1961).  Martin Scorsese considers this to be one of the top ten scariest films of all time, and it's not difficult to understand why.  One particular scene caused all the hairs on the back of my arms to stand straight up.  Adapted from Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, the film was directed by Jack Clayton and written by Truman Capote.  The beautifully sinister cinematography was provided by future Hammer horror director Freddie Francis (he of The Evil of Frankenstein and Dracula Has Risen from the Grave fame--or infamy, depending on your point of view).  

20.  The Tenth Victim (1965).  “Live dangerously, but within the law.”  In 1953 the science fiction writer Robert Sheckley published a groundbreaking short story entitled “The Seventh Victim” in the pages of Galaxy Magazine.  “The Seventh Victim” is a satirical tale about a near-future society in which contestants volunteer to stalk each other to the death on television for monetary prizes, fame, and the simple thrill of the hunt.  Needless to say, Sheckley’s story predates the advent of “reality television” by about four decades.  In 1958 Sheckley published a similar story entitled “The Prize of Peril” in the pages of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.  Both stories are prescient to an extreme degree. 

In the early 1960s, actor Marcello Mastroianni read “The Seventh Victim” and suggested to producer Carlo Ponti that it be adapted into a feature-length film.  Thus was born two separate expansions of the original story:  the 1965 Italian film The Tenth Victim directed by Elio Petri, and Sheckley’s novel-length version published by Ballantine Books the following year.  Two decades later Sheckley wrote a pair of sequels, Victim Prime (1987) and Hunter/Victim (1988), both of which are well worth reading.  If you’d like to experience the source material that inspired a whole slew of popular "hunter/victim" games like Steve Jackon’s Killer, bestselling books such as Stephen King’s The Running Man (1982), Paul Michael Glaser’s 1987 film adaptation of King’s novel, Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy and the blockbuster cinematic adaptations of same, then I urge you to read Sheckley’s original tales.  Afterwards, you should go out of your way to see Petri’s visually impressive, Pop-Art-adaptation of Sheckley’s prophetic vision of the 21^st century. 

It occurred to me while watching this film that Sheckley’s “Hunter/Victim” game eerily resembles the real life, post-9/11 phenomenon of gang stalking—as described in my book, Chameleo—except that in the real world the victim is never informed that he or she is playing a role in a televised game for the amusement of others.  Leaving aside this single discrepancy, all details of Sheckley’s darkly absurd scenario plays out almost precisely like the Global Surveillance Theater in which you’re all starring at this very moment.  Sadly, The Tenth Victim might very well be a more accurate prediction of the future (i.e., our present) than George Orwell's 1984, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 combined.

 

21.  Burn Witch Burn (1962).  Beginning with a magickal invocation by Paul Frees (doing a spot-on Orson Welles impersonation), Sidney Hayers’ adaptation of Fritz Leiber’s first novel, Conjure Wife, immediately plunges the viewer into a confounding nether-realm that lies somewhere between rationality and superstition.  The protagonist, Norman Taylor (Peter Wyngarde, who portrayed one of the spirits in The Innocents), is a sociology professor with little patience for religion or superstitious beliefs of any kind… until he discovers his wife is an accomplished witch whose protective spells have been the Taylors’ only defense against a vengeful sorceress, a fellow tenured professor at the small British university where Norman teaches.  Oh, yes, at this particular university the concept of “academic freedom” is taken to devilish extremes. 

       Having taught at more than one university during the past fourteen or so years, I can assure you that Leiber’s vision of a campus crawling with passive-aggressive profs casting spells and counter-spells on each other to attain a higher position of (relative) power is the most accurate depiction of university life ever committed to the printed page.  No metaphors here.  Leiber’s “horror” novel might as well be labeled nonfiction.

Burn Witch Burn is only one of three films that attempted to translate Leiber’s classic novel to the silver screen (all of which unwisely abandoned Leiber’s elegant title), but this is by far the best of them.  The success of the film can be attributed to the faithful screenplay by Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont.  Clearly, both writers were fans of Leiber’s novel and went out of their way to keep its central theme intact.  For the uninitiated, it’s worth noting that Leiber’s Conjure Wife (1943) and Our Lady of Darkness (1977) are two of the most accomplished supernatural novels of the twentieth century.  I’ve always felt that Our Lady of Darkness would make a tremendous film if handled properly.  In fact, it’s long past time for Leiber to be acknowledged outside the narrow confines of the fantasy/science fiction field. 

Perhaps Penguin Classics is up to the task.  This very month Penguin released new editions of Charles Beaumont’s Perchance to Dream:  Selected Stories and Thomas Ligotti’s Songs of a Dead Dreamers and Grimscribe.  Penguin is to be commended for this, as the work of Beaumont and Ligotti are well worth reading; however, I do hope they don’t stop there.  A collection of Leiber’s finest tales is long overdue.  Any tome that collected such dark jewels as “Smoke Ghost,” “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes,” “Four Ghosts in Hamlet,” “The Man Who Never Grew Young,” “Coming Attraction,” “Belsen Express,” “The Man Who Made Friends with Electricity,” “Richmond, Late September, 1849,” “Dark Wings,” “A Bit of the Dark World,” “The Winter Flies,” “Schizo Jimmie,” “237 Talking Statues, Etc.” and “You’re All Alone” would be a quaint and curious volume of almost-forgotten lore worthy of inclusion on any bibliophile’s bookshelf.  (If anyone at Penguin Classics is reading this, they should get the ball rolling on that project right away.)  In the meantime, be sure to check out a volume entitled Dark Ladies, an inexpensive Tor Books omnibus collecting both Conjure Wife and Our Lady of Darkness, then watch the recent Kino Lorber Blu-ray release of Burn Witch Burn, which includes an audio commentary by Richard Matheson.

22.  Crimson Peak (2015).  The best horror film of the year.  I urge you to go out and see it before it fades back into The October Country from whence it came....

(Note:  With the exception of The Monster That Challenged the World, Son of Frankenstein, Hold That Ghost, Invisible Agent, and The Devil Bat, all of these films were being seen by me for the first time.)