Nick Redfern's Blog, page 141

A Monster-Themed Night at the Museum

On Saturday, January 26, I'll be speaking about my books Monster Diary and Wildman at the Austin, Texas-based Museum of the Weird.

And I won't be the only one lecturing either!

Here's the full schedule (from the organizer), below, with a link at the foot of the post where you can find out more about the event.

A CRYPTOMUNDO NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM

Saturday, January 26th, 2012
3:00pm to 10:00pm

Museum of the Weird, in conjunction with the world's foremost website on all things cryptid, Cryptomundo.com, will be hosting a very special event on January 26th at the Museum of the Weird in Austin, TX:

Cryptomundo Night at the Museum!

Featuring an all-star line up of world famous cryptozoologists, experts and authors, it's sure to be a night of entertainment, intrigue and mystery as we explore the unknown creatures that lurk in the darker corners of the world we live in!

Please come out and join us for the festivities!

Speaker presentations and author book signings include:

Lyle Blackburn, frontman for rock band Ghoultown , writer for Rue Morgue magazine and author of The Beast of Boggy Creek .



Nick Redfern, author of Wildman! The Monstrous and Mysterious Saga of the British Bigfoot , Monster Diary: On the Road in Search of Strange and Sinister Creatures , The World's Weirdest Places , and Memoirs of a Monster Hunter .

Ken Gerhard, author of Big Bird! Modern Sightings of Flying Monsters and  Monsters of Texas .



Dave Coleman, author of The Bigfoot Filmography .

The event starts at 3:00pm and goes until 6:00pm, then a break for dinner and to explore 6th Street and downtown Austin.

It resumes again at 8:00pm with a special screening in the Museum's Weird Theater of the '70s drive-in classic Creature from Black Lake .

The event is $10 and includes admission to the Museum of the Weird and the movie (dinner and drinks not included).

Space and seating is extremely limited, so we recommend buying your tickets early!

And here's where you can find out more...

Bonnie & Clyde and a (kind of) Man in Black

 Well, since I decided to take 10 days or so off work for Christmas, I figured it would be a good time to show my dad (over here on holiday for 2 weeks) a few of the sights of Dallas that he had never previously seen. And that included the graves of legendary outlaws Bonnie and Clyde - both of who are buried in the Dallas area, but at different cemeteries.
So, we headed out on a cold, icy morning last week to check them out, and here's a few shots...
 









And if you're wondering about this last one (taken right next to the grave of Clyde), no it's not evidence that a Man in Black is buried at the cemetery!

Although, I have to say that the irony of me (having written extensively about the MIB) coming across it did not escape me!

In reality, it's nothing stranger than a marker for the grave of Clyde's brother, whose initials happened to be MIB: Marvin Ivan Barrow.

The Toad in Folklore

As you may know, every month New Page Books' blog has a new Creature of the Month article, the latest one being from Dr. Bob Curran, and the subject: the toad.

It starts like this:

"In many folklore traditions, the toad is something of an ambivalent creature. On the one hand, it is considered to be repellent and often becomes a symbol of foulness and evil – perhaps its very appearance hints at it being malignant and poisonous. And yet on the other hand - and in many Eastern cultures - it is associated with wisdom and 'knowing'. Toads are thought to have lived for many centuries and in that time have acquired much knowledge. It was therefore considered to be the wisest of creatures and parts of its body could be used for special purposes."

And here's the full post...

A Mystery in the Urals

Kithra has a new post at her Krystal Kave site, which is an excellent overview of a notorious mystery.  Here' the opening words... "Many people have written about this incident as it's not only a real mystery but remains, to this day, unsolved. "It happened during the night of 2nd February, 1959, in the northern Ural Mountains on a mountain known as Kholat Syakhl. The mountain's name comes from the language of the endangered indigenous Mansi people of Russia. And it's a language that is, in many ways, very similar to Hungarian. A translation of the mountain's name means Mountain of the Dead, so it's somewhat chilling that the incident should have occurred there. Because it happened the event has come to be known as the Dyatlov Pass incident after the name of the leader of the group to which it happened.The group was made up of 8 men and 2 women, most of them students or graduates of the Ural Polytechnic Institute, and it was led by Igor Dyatlov. They had got together in order to ski and walk across the northern Ural Mountains, finally reaching Otorten Mountain, which was just over 6 miles from where the event took place. During February it was a route that was classed as being the most difficult of all, but they were highly experienced skiers and trekkers. The idea behind the expedition was to use it as preparation for a journey into more difficult Arctic districts at a later date."  Got your interest? Read on!

Archiving my 2012 Shows

As you'll see to the right of my posts at this blog, I have deleted the list of my 2012 gigs and have started loading my events, radio-shows etc, for this year, 2013.

However, since many of the 2012 radio shows I did are available online, I have posted them all here below, in case you want to check them out:

Coast to Coast - Jan. 5;
Meg Blackburn Show - Jan. 11;
Brilliant Essence Show - Jan. 12;
When Pigs Fly Radio - January 13;
Bruce Collins Show - January 16;
Science For Life Radio - Jan. 18;
Positively Incorrect Radio - Jan. 19;
EPIC, Dallas, Texas (Lecture) - Jan. 22;
Jim Harold Show - Jan. 23;
Guts And Bones Show - Jan. 30;
Nancy Wallace Show - Jan. 31;
Jackal's Head Show - Feb. 3;
Richard Syrett Show - Feb. 5;
Monique Chapman Show - Feb. 8;
Catherine Bradford Show - Feb. 9;
Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas MUFON (Lecture) - Feb. 19;
Scott Colborn Show - March 24;
Cross Timbers Creature Conference - Apr. 14;
Search for Hidden Beasts show - June 3;
Dr. Rita Louise Show - June 15;
Temple Of Health Show - June 16;
EPIC - June 18;
The Paracast show - June 24;
Bright Side Radio - June 24;
Ken Hudnall show - June 25;
West Coast Truth - June 26;
Darkness Radio - June 27;
Second Sight - June 28;
Radio Amerika - June 29;
Bruce Collins Show - July 2;
Marshall Masters Show - July 3;
Meg Blackburn Show - July 5;
Inner Talk - July 10;
USC Radio Show - July 11;
USC Radio Show - July 17;
Higher Side Chats - July 18;
Disinformation Podcast - July 24;
Sandy Sedgbeer Show - July 25;
Late Night in the Midlands - Aug. 1;
Monique Chapman - Aug. 15;
Coast to Coast AM - Aug. 15;
Rita Louise Show - Aug. 17;
Commander X - Aug.18;
Global Alliance - Aug. 20;
Bobby Keegan - Aug. 21;
Acceleration Radio - Aug. 23;
EPIC - Aug. 27;
Starseed Radio - Aug. 28;
Apparition Radio - Aug. 29;
Stench of Truth Radio - Aug. 31;
Commander X Radio - Sept. 1;
Donna Devane Show - Sept. 2;
Paranormal Palace Radio show - Sept. 4;
Rene Barnett Show - Sept. 5;
Exploring Unexplained Phenomena - Sept. 15;
Kevin Cook Show - Sept. 18;
Vex - Sept. 20;
Good Vibrations - Sept. 22;
EPIC lecture - Sept. 23;
MUFON San Antonio lecture - Sept. 25;
Randy Maugans - Sept 26;
Second Sight - Sept. 27;
Austin Center for Spiritual Living lecture - Sept. 29;
Richard Syrett Show - Sept. 30;
Fast Street Show - Oct. 4;
Nancy Du Tertre Show - Oct. 5;
Allan Handeman - Oct. 9;
Bruce Collins - Oct. 11;
Highland Park Schools, Dallas, Texas - Oct. 12;
Sartori Lecture - Oct. 12;
Chattahoochee Bigfoot Radio - Oct. 14;
Whispers Radio - Oct 15;
Paradigm Symposium - Oct. 17-21;
Jim Harold Show - Oct. 23;
Donna Seebo Show - Oct. 24;
The Edge - Oct. 25;
Stuart Haycock Show - Oct. 26;
Gary Mantz Show - Oct. 26;
Nick Page Show - Oct. 27;
Coast to Coast - Oct. 28;
Media Monarchy - Oct. 29;
A.A.G. Radio - Oct. 31;
Second Sight - Nov. 1;
Highland Park Schools, Dallas, Texas - Nov. 1;
Highland Park Schools, Dallas, Texas - Nov. 2;
Z-Talk Radio - Nov. 5;
Higher Side Chats - Nov. 8;
Para-X - Nov. 8;
Amy Rouse Show - Nov. 12;
Barb Adams Show - Nov. 15;
Mike Quinsey - Nov. 16;
Jay Lawrence Show - Nov. 17;
Pang Radio - Nov. 18;
Paranormal Palace - Nov. 20;
EPIC - Nov. 26;
Highland Park Schools, Dallas, Texas - Nov. 28;
Journeys with Rebecca - Nov. 29;
Maria Frees Show - Dec. 5;
Eric Altman Show - Dec. 9;
Grand Dark Conspiracy - Dec. 10

Mysterious and Magical Cats

And there's one more new post from me at Mysterious Universe , which I penned just before Christmas, and which focuses on a great new book from Karl Shuker.

Here's the opening words...

"Beyond any shadow of a doubt, one of the leading seekers of strange creatures in the world today is Dr. Karl Shuker, who hails only a couple of miles from where I grew up in central England. But, Karl is not only a fine cryptozoologist. He’s an excellent author, too. And, right now, he has a new book out (yep, just in time for Christmas!) that should be of keen interest to anyone and everyone with an interest in strange creatures, folklore, magical tales, and Forteana. Its title: Cats of Magic, Mythology, and Mystery .

"Gathered together for the very first time, and between the covers of one single volume, are countless stories that will astound and intrigue you. Indeed, be prepared to be thoroughly amazed, and totally captivated, by a spellbinding array of truly extraordinary, exceptional cats of every imaginable – and even unimaginable – variety. And it’s Britain’s CFZ Press – the publishing arm of Jonathan Downes’ Center for Fortean Zoology - that we have to thank for publishing Karl’s book."

And here's where you can read the full article on the book , which, if Cryptozoology and weird beasts are your thing, you should definitely get hold of!

A British Winged Thing

  Well, since the world didn't end on December 21 (did anyone, aside from total dicks, really think it would?), it's time to get back to it. Here's my latest Mysterious Universe post, on what might be termed some sort of weird British Mothman.

It starts like this... "The Mothman of Point Pleasant, West Virginia; Cornwall, England’s Owlman; the Houston Batman of Texas; the legendary Thunderbirds that populate Native American lore; and the flying woman of Vietnam: they all have one thing in common, namely that they are undeniably weird winged things that have no business surfing the skies of our planet. But, that doesn’t mean they’re not! Indeed, the sheer wealth of testimony on record suggests that’s exactly what they – and many more of their monstrous ilk – are doing. "And while the critters cited above are all well known to the field of Forteana, many others are not, including one I investigated more than a decade or so ago in central England, and which is way up there in the truly weird stakes. So, where to begin? There’s only one place we can: the beginning of course…'  And here's the full post...    

Merry Christmas!

Unless something massively earth-shattering occurs in the Fortean world over the next week or so, I'm signing off until January 2 onwards.

So, have a merry Christmas and a great new year!

John Keel's Jadoo: Coming Soon!

This is very good news!

Check out this link at the website of Anomalist Books and you'll see that they are soon to republish John Keel's classic book Jadoo .

If any mention of John Keel (pictured above with Greg Bishop) makes you think of Mothman and the Men in Black, well, it should!

But, Jadoo takes the reader much further into the world of Keel - and a much earlier world, too.

Keep checking out the AB website for news of the official publication date. If you haven't read Jadoo , then you're in for a major treat!

The Beast of Bolam: 10 Years On

Next month, January 2013, will mark the 10th anniversary of an on-site investigation of a very weird set of events that involved a series of Bigfoot-type encounters at Bolam Lake Country Park , in Northumberland, England.

And it ended with a spectacularly bizarre encounter on the part of the Center for Fortean Zoology's director, Jon Downes, who was there coordinating the quest for the beast.

But, as Jon noted at the time, and as he still confirms today, whatever the thing was, it clearly was not a flesh and blood animal - at least not in the way we understand the term.

So, why am I mentioning this now?

Well, not just because of the anniversary angle, but because my new book, Wildman! The Monstrous and Mysterious Saga of the "British Bigfoot" tells this story in full, and includes a number of seldom-addressed aspects of the story, as well as photos of the site of Jon's dramatic encounter.

For me, it's a case that definitively demonstrates why the British Bigfoot should be perceived as a creature of paranormal - rather than flesh and blood - origins, however we define what the paranormal might actually be!