MonsterTalk

Author Sarah Scoles joins us to discuss her amazing book They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers.  It's a terrific ride through UFO culture and the fallout from the 2017 New York Times front-page article about the US Government Program to examine unidentified objects in the sky.

Links/Additional Reading/Terms:

AATIP - the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program - the pentagon program associated with Luis Elizondo. 

TTSA - To The Stars Academy - the entertainment/media company set up by BLINK-182 frontman Tom Delonge and storied paranormal researcher Harold Puthoff. 

UAP - Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon - the new terminology used by the military to discuss unknown flying objects while trying to avoid all the connotations of UFOs.

UFO - Unidentified Flying Objects - a perfectly reasonable term for unknown flying things in the sky (coined in 1953), except for the wacky cultural baggage it immediately picked up. Honestly, the term UFO attracts "wacky" like a piece of half-chewed bubble gum dropped in a dog bed attracts hairs.  

Robert Bigelow - Hotelier, sugar-daddy to weirdness, and also space entrepreneur. 

The New York Times story that broke the AATIP program publicly. 

The follow-up story from two of the authors (Kean & Blumenthal)

The incredibly long-running joke Paul Rudd has been doing on the Conan show

Roll for initiative as Karen and Blake discuss the history of roleplaying games and the Monster Manual with Jon Peterson.

Jon Peterson (@docetist)  is the author of PLAYING AT THE WORLD A HISTORY OF SIMULATING WARS, PEOPLE, AND FANTASTIC ADVENTURES, FROM CHESS TO ROLE-PLAYING GAMES. He was also a contributor to the recent retrospective volume looking at the game DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ART & ARCANA: A VISUAL HISTORY.

His latest book is the official D&D cookbook (for real and actual food) titled HERO'S FEAST.

Mentioned in this episode:

Painting miniatures 

H. G. Wells' Little Wars 

E. Gary Gygax 

Dave Arneson 

TSR (now Wizards of the Coast)

Telengard (computer RPG)

PLATO computer system

Mazes and Monsters 

Backlash against D&D from Patricia Pulling 

The "steam tunnel" case of James Dallas Egbert III.

The D&D Cartoon 

Dungeons & Dragons today 

Join us for a very Halloween themed look at a book which was deeply influential on Karen and Blake.  Usborne's WORLD OF THE UNKNOWN: GHOSTS authored by our very special guest, Christopher Maynard. 

Check out Karen's latest book - a linguist's look at the nature of offensive language. 

Use this Amazon affiliate link and a small portion of the sale will support MonsterTalk:  http://bit.ly/OnTheOffensive

Peter Bebergal returns (previously on episode #180 with his book Strange Frequencies)  to discuss magic, witchcraft, and the occult and how those things impacted the world of Rock & Roll music.  Check the attachment to this episode for a bunch of music links relevant to the show and Peter's book Season of the Witch.

Speaking of books - Karen has a new one and I made an easy to remember shortcut to it on Amazon:  http://bit.ly/OnTheOffensive (The lettering case in that link does matter.)

Discussed in the episode:

Image of David Bowie in "Diamond Dogs" album (MOMA)

Made for TV Movie: Devil Dog - The Hound of Hell

The George Harrison "documentary" Karen mentions - Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison (There is a lot of mixed messaging out there on whether this is a serious but wacky documentary or a silly but confusing mockumentary. It was originally released as a documentary but the filmmaker has since reclassified it as "mockumentary" - was this for legal reasons?) FYI: The narration is not by George Harrison.

The UFO Club in London was a short-lived hub of early lights & sounds and psychedelic imagery. It only operated over a two-year span but had a tremendous impact on music culture - and on posters for bands.

Peter's original SOTW Spotify List (link)

Song/Album

Notes

Fire (The Crazy World of Arthur Brown)

Starts with the iconic (and parent-frightening) "I AM THE GOD OF HELLFIRE..."

Sacred Songs (Daryl Hall)

Daryl Hall (!?) album inspired by the work of Aleister Crowley

Cross Road Blues (Robert Johnson)

While the legend of the blues musician at the crossroads is often applied to Robert Johnson, it has earlier roots with...

Cool Drink of Water Blues (Tommy Johnson)

Tommy Johnson, not related to Robert, was the focus of an earlier version of the crossroads legend

Anthology of American Folk Music (via archive.org)

A partial selection of the 6-album (3, 2-record ea) set of American Folk Music curated by Harry Smith.

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (Pink Floyd)

The Syd Barrett-led Pink Floyd would change a lot after Barrett's descent into mental illness, but there are psychedelic and occult themes in this eclectic early Floyd album. Interstellar Overdrive is a good long instrumental track to read Bebergal's book to.

My Sweet Lord (George Harrison)

Perhaps the most public of the musician seekers, Harrison's ode to the search for a connection to the numinous was very successful - and also (accidentally?) directly copied He's So Fine by The Chiffons.

Shankar: Dhun (Ravi Shankar)

Sitar would meet Guitar when the Beatles went to India and met gurus and traditional Indian musicians, most famously Ravi Shankar.

Lucifer Rising soundtrack (Bobby BeauSoleil)

The soundtrack to occult filmmaker Kenneth Anger's movie Lucifer Rising was supposed to be done by Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, but things happened. (This complicated story is covered in Bebergal's book.)

War Pigs (Black Sabbath)

The Ozzy Osborne led band would take its name from an Italian horror film, but like Alice Cooper, the "occult" aspects of Sabbath appear to be entirely performative. Consider Ozzy's paean to Aleister Crowley in which he fails to pronounce the old occultist's name right. (Crowley rhymes with holy.) 

Sympathy for the Devil (The Rolling Stones)

The Stones' "wicked" song - was it inspired by Baudelaire or Kenneth Anger? And how many times do the band sing "who? who?" in this 6-minute treat?

Misty Mountain Hop (Led Zeppelin)

Combining elements of Tolkien fantasy and drug-fueled psychedelic experiences, LZ music combined many elements of fictional and authentic occult imagery. Jimmy Page's interest in Aleister Crowley is legendary with him even buying Crowley's Loch Ness adjacent home Boleskin.

Mephisto Waltz (Misfits)

The punk band Misfits took their imagery and themes from horror movies and the occult as well.

Jack Parsons (The Claypool Lennon Delirium)

This came out after Bebergal's book, but this is an amazing modern throwback to the psychedelic era that also tells a weirdly surprisingly accurate story of Jack Parsons, occultist, and rocketeer.

Hotter than Hell (KISS)

KISS aligned itself with wild stage antics and imagery, but in the 1970s even having the word "hell" in your song titles could lead to allegations that your band's name really stood for "Knights in Satan's Service." (Narrator: It didn't.)

Life on Mars? (David Bowie)

Bowie's role in occult rock history is really quite peculiar and not what I expected. Often in drug-fueled paranoia of the occult, his off-stage behavior stands in stark contrast from the on-stage cool presence.  I wanted to include a song from him on this list and this peculiar antithesis to My Way is one I really like.

After Cease to Exist (Throbbing Gristle)

I'm not recommending this 20 min weird and disturbing soundscape - but if you're feeling a bit like Frank in Hellraiser and just wonder what the cenobites probably jam to?  Anyway, in Bebergal's book, there are some interesting tidbits about how Throbbing Gristle's members became involved with William S. Burroughs and the occult aspects of his life.

Bela Lugosi's Dead (Bauhaus)

The song that kicked off the goth scene. It doesn't take 9 mins to tell people that Bela Lugosi (the actor who played Dracula in the 1931 Universal horror film) is dead… but it does the Bauhaus way. 

Hallowed Be Thy Name (Iron Maiden)

Peter doesn't write about Iron Maiden in the book, but growing up in the 80s, Iron Maiden was one of the many reasons I refused to get a 96 Rock Card. I was so not into heavy metal and it was weird catching up on that stuff in my 40s instead of my teens.

In Search Of Space (Hawkwind)

Before Motorhead, Lemmy sang about UFOs. (Well, I think that's what he's singing about?)

Door of the Cosmos (Sun Ra)

Sun Ra's jazz music isn't really rock, but it's something. And I think magician Penn Jillette mentions Sun Ra about as often as he mentions James Randi.

Witch Trial (Black Mass Lucifer)

The pioneering electronic album Black Mass Lucifer - or is it Black Mass by Lucifer? - is an album by electronic music audio explorer Mort Garson. It's occult-themed but its weird MOOG tonal tapestries, without the context of title or lyrics, would be hard to classify as specifically "magic" themed. 

The Tales of Topographic Oceans (Yes)

A friend once described to me how that in the 1970s it was common to put on long, trippy albums and just stare at album artwork and go on imaginary journeys. With a cover by Roger Dean and just four songs, each about 20 mins in length, I think this is exactly what he was talking about. I once had an angry Navy training instructor basically spit at Yes's "Owner of a Lonely Heart" and shout to the class "It ain't Yes unless it takes 15 minutes to listen to and has a 5-minute guitar solo!"

Apes**t (Beyonce and Jay-Z)

Jay-Z has played around with the imagery of the illuminati and occult. Here's an article about the imagery use in the video for this song.

Secular Haze (Ghost B.C.)

Combines ghoulish occult imagery with monk garb and skeletal makeup. Swedish in origin, but not flat-packed. 

Author Colin Dickey is back with another fantastic book - this time it's taking a look at the culture of the weird including UFOs, doorways to Atlantis, cryptozoology, and jarring Fortean events.  The Unidentified is available in paper, and audio via audible.

Colin's previous episode was #149 and covered his fantastic book Ghostland.

Discussed in this episode: 

Mt. Shasta - the doorway to the hollow earth and Atlantis 

The stabilized PGF film of Bigfoot 

 The Kentucky Meat Shower 

Charles Fort 

Ignatius Donnelly (father of Modern Atlantis nonsense)

The Maury Island UFO 

The patch campaign on Kickstarter from "The Monsterologist" George Coghill still has patches available and they're gorgeous.

Details on the patch give away are here.   

Warning: If you're bothered by gore and dismemberment in your horror, this movie ain't for you.  But, if you want to watch the film (before or after listening to my coverage) you can find it "uncut" in two places that I was able to locate:

On YouTube (when I posted this) 

and

Streaming on Amazon Prime 

In this episode, I'm taking a look at perhaps the most controversial Bigfoot movie ever released to big screens.  

Here's a recipe for Night of the Demon:

1 lb of finely chopped 1980s slasher movie 1 lb of 1970s Bigfoot movie 1 qt softcore porn 3 gallons of fake blood a full head of urban legend and add just a soupçon of Lovecraftian cult magic

Mentioned in this episode:

Interview with Michael Cutt (Professor Nugent) with interesting details behind the scenes.

Night of the Demon listing on IMDB

All 72 films on the British Video Nasty list. 

Evil Dead 2 (Amazon Streaming)

Eventually We Find Our Way track by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Steven Johnson of the University of Florida about invasive species and specifically focus on the cane toad.  This incredibly robust and prolific toad excretes poison fluid from glands on its back and has been introduced from its native habitat into several locations around the world, most notably (and destructively) in Australia.

Mentioned in the episode 

There are two notable documentaries about the cane toad:

Cane Toads: An Unnatural History (1988) - Available through Curiosity Stream if you have that service. (And on YouTube at the time I post this)

Cane Toads: The Conquest - which looks to only be available as a UK DVD (but is also on YouTube as I post this)

Cane toad near Queensland, AU

Lovecraftian kudzu horrors...

We are joined by Ph.D. student Minwen Huang, who shares with us the history of the literary genre of Chinese Ghosts called Zhiguai, and how such beings (and literature) are viewed from ancient times to the present.

A wiki page about the character for "ghost": 鬼

Images of Women in Chinese Thought and Culture: Writings from the Pre-Qin Period through the Song Dynasty - a collection of Chinese stories including the Zhiguai stories of Gan Bao. 

Tales from a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling - a classic collection of weird tales and ghost stories.

A Chinese Ghost Story - 1987 Hong Kong action comedy-drama based on Zhiguai stories

Mr. Vampire - 1985 comedy horror film based on Chinese "Hopping Vampire" lore

Spooky Encounters - 1980 comedy horror with the incomparable Sammo Hung

Legend of the 7 Gold Vampires - 1979 Hammer/Shaw Brothers horror film

(Update: The Radio Lab episode on the computerization of Chinese characters.)

MonsterTalk Classic interviews return with a look at robots and automata of the ancient classical world. Adrienne Mayor joins us to talk about her book Gods and Robots (book) (audiobook) and how the ancient world envisioned in myth (and reality) early conceptions of automated servants and robotic devices.

Mentioned in the episode:

Talos 

Shabti 

Daedalus 

Icarus 

The Antikythera Mechanism 

Mithradates 

The Sphinx 

Kali 

Buddha 

Jason and the Argonauts (Harryhausen)

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (Harryhausen)

=== Other Works by Adrienne Mayor ===

Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World 

The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy 

Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, & Scorpion Bombs 

The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times