For this week's Third Time's the Charm (3xtC) presentation, Icy Sedgwick joins AP to venture into the realm of found footage horror movies with a look at Paranormal Activity 3. As it happens, Icy was the perfect guest to have on for this subject, as she has an honest-to-goodness doctorate in horror movies and used the Paranormal Activity series for her Ph D! In this discussion, she and AP get into the benefits and drawbacks of found footage as a genre, what it says about our perception of paranormal events, and even some of the folklore and tropes that pervade these narratives.

Icy is also a former ghost hunter, a folklorist, and a dark fantasy writer- and these rarified talents and experiences lend themselves well to discussions around the paranormal in both fictional and allegedly true accounts... and everything in-between. The conversation covers everything from how ghosts and demons are portrayed in media, the differences in these portrayals in British and American productions, and the ways in which horror narratives mirror the popular consciousness more readily than other forms of fiction.
 
They also briefly discuss Icy's book, Rebel Folklore, which is available for purchase on Amazon. She also hosts the wonderful podcast Fabulous Folklore, which you can check out here: https://pod.co/fabulous-folklore-with-icy
And for her writings and other works go here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/

This week AP sits down to talk flying saucers with UFO buff, author, playwright, and blogger Charles Lear! Charles is the author of The Flying Saucer Investigators, a book detailing the early history around the personalities who made UFOs a cultural phenomenon. It serves as an excellent primer on the origins of modern UFOlogy, following the storied paths of people like Jim Moseley, Ray Palmer, John Keel, and others- with a lot of classic cases covered as well!

Charles and AP dig into some of the particulars, and the circular nature of the UFO narrative down through the decades. Along the way, they run afoul of the MiB and share some laughs over the absurdity of it all. They also discuss Charles' second book, Crashed Saucers and Malevolent Aliens: The Emergence of the Popular Modern UFO Mythos in the Late 20th Century, and his work blogging for Podcast UFO. There's even a ghost story or two!

Check out Charles Lear's books on Amazon
and his work for Podcast UFO here: https://podcastufo.com/

This week, AP sits down with filmmaker and artist Tess Martin to discuss her recent works, and what they have to say about time, memory, and meaning. Tess is a visual artist based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands with a background in classical fine art and animation, and her films are a unique marriage of the two disciplines that get to the heart of the bigger questions in our perceptions of the world and our place within it. In particular, they discuss her film currently being exhibited, Still Life with Woman, Tea, and Letter, and an earlier work called 1976 - Search for Life. Both films use animation of photographs within settings in a way that pulls moments out of time, in a profound and moving way.

In talking about these works, AP and Tess discuss the nature of time, how limited our concepts of it tend to be, and how through art and creative endeavors one might gain mastery over it. It was a fascinating conversation which will leave the listener with much to think about!

Check out Tess Martin's wonderful art here: https://www.tessmartinart.com/ 

Steve Mills, aka the Reverend StarDoG, returns to the show this week to discuss the festival scene throughout the U.K. in the 1970s into the 1980s. Steve had previously been on for a Third Time's the Charm episode to discuss Halloween III, but this time he and AP get into the music, culture, and adjacent wyrdshit of the free festival movement he was part of. 

Starting with a bit of history in the early 70s, they discuss a festival in the Queen's backyard, the infamous Wallys of Wessex court trial, the concerts at Stonehenge, the Battle of the Bean field, and more- including the social and political implications of the hippie caravan lifestyle and its portrayal in popular media of the time. Groups such as the Dwarves, Hawkwind, and the Pink Fairies provided anthemic soundtracks to the scene, and Steve makes a case for these festivals as being a template for later events such as Burning Man.

He also talks about his band Tubilah DoG, opening for Hawkwind, playing onstage whilst "off his tits", and various ways the music industry is a thing apart from the creative forces it depends on. Of course, it wouldn't be a whibble with StarDog if the conversation didn't involve the influence of Discordianism and the wyrdshit that attends it- including possible time slips, mystery fogs, and UFOs. 

It was a wild conversation. If you'd like to hear the DoGs' 1996 album, In Search of Plaice, check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPXLWky7d9s

This week AP has a chat with his old friend Michelle Elmquist about The Simpsons- its cultural impact, the weirdness involved in some of the episodes, and how the early seasons captured a particular essence of the 1990s. Michelle had been the host of The Eternal Void, But With Jazz podcast for which AP was sometimes a guest host or cohost. The current show now owes much to Michelle in getting AP into podcasting!

They discuss themes of the ufological, cryptozoological, and conspiratorial within the first ten or so seasons of the classic show, how much people of a certain age are mentally wired by Simpsons references, and also explore some of the alleged predictions of future events that occurred in the series. It was a fun conversation, full of heart and laughs. 

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man."

On this week's show, the documentary series Strange Magick is discussed with director Bill Darmon and researcher and author Dave Goudsward. The film explores the connections between sites in New England, the odd connections between the magic of places and larger-than-life figures such as Aleister Crowley and H. P. Lovecraft, and even espionage during World War I.
In this conversation the focus is more specifically on Lovecraft and his likely connections to Mystery Hill, also known as "America's Stonehenge" in Salem, New Hampshire. Dave had been the manager at the site, and is also a historian of Lovecraft's life and works- in addition to also being a very fun guy to talk to! Bill and Dave get into Lovecraft's travels and possible romantic entanglements with a less well remembered writer named Myrna Little, and how these elements informed his weird fiction.

The pitch for the film, per Bill, goes like this: Aleister Crowley. Howard Phillips Lovecraft. New Hampshire. While they never met, new independent research has turned up intriguing connections between these two giants of the occult and a mysterious third party, a Radcliffe graduate who factors prominently in both of their writings- was it the same woman?
Could she have been their connection to strange stone sites linked to a German plot during World War I?
Strange Magick is both documentary and cinematic recreation of the work of researchers David Goudsward, Dr. Richard Spence and others- it is as much a story of the research as it is the research itself.
Watch it on YouTube at @StrangeMagickFilm

It was a fascinating and fun conversation, and a great one for Lovecraft fans. Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

In addition to the YouTube channel, you can keep up with the documentary by following strangemagickfilm on instagram. Bill and Dave can both be found on Facebook as well.
Find Dave Goudsward's books here: http://goudsward.com/dave/

Fred Andersson returns to the show this week to discuss some wild cases from his home country of Sweden, including sightings of mummies, gnomes, and lake monsters! Fred had previously appeared on the show to discuss Jaws 3-D for one of the Third Time's the Charm (3xtC) episodes, but he just has too many cool stories to share to not have him back on for that. In addition, he's a wonderful researcher and just an absolute pleasure to talk to or listen to.

He and AP also get into "phantom stranger" encounters, with each sharing personal tales- and perhaps finding a new connection in one of Fred's strange stories! The conversation runs the paranormal gamut, and as always is the case with Fred it was an entertaining and illuminating chat.

Check out Fred's book here: https://www.amazon.com/Northern-Lights-High-Strangeness-Sweden/dp/1954528728
And follow his work on Medium here: https://medium.com/@fred-andersson

Robert Guffey joins AP in this episode for a lengthy and mind-bending chat that covers a lot of weird ground. Robert is a well-known writer and author of both fiction and non-fiction, and in this chat the difficulty in telling the difference between the two is well illustrated. One of his books, Chameleo, is discussed at length- in particular, how much of what seemed fantastic or crazy in it when it was released ten years ago now seems eerily prescient.
In addition, Robert discusses his newest book, The Expectant Mother Disinformation Handbook, and his short stories from Cryptopolis; science fiction and how it overlaps with secret government projects; how stories are told in media broadly about weird and paranoid subject matter; all this and more!

Check out Robert's site here: http://cryptoscatology.com/
If you haven't read Chameleo, you can get a copy here: https://orbooks.com/catalog/chameleo/

Viva Las Vegas! This week AP chats with Jeff Knox, a wonderful UFO researcher and cohost of the YouTube show Ufo Sunset, about Leprechaun 3. AP had come up with the idea of a Leprechanathon- that is, watching all of the Leprechaun movies in a row, and being the madman that his Mr. Knox actually did it! In keeping with the Third Time's the Charm formula, the chat focuses on the Vegas-set third installment but the conversation goes all over the map. From struggles to find internal consistency in the franchise to attempting to understand the dynamics of leprechaun magics, a lot of very silly ground gets covered- with some dirty limericks thrown in to boot!

This episode resulted from a conversation in the show's discord channel- if you are interested in joining the little community over there, send AP a message via Instagram, BlueSky, or smoke signal and he'll let you in!

Find Jeff on those sites under @mrjeffknox , and check out his YouTube shows and lectures here: https://www.youtube.com/@UfoSunset1947

This week's episode is a journey through sound and melody, as AP talks with Mike Fiorito about the interrelation between music and the Phenomenon. Mike is a musician, and a freelance music journalist, and also an award-winning author. His latest book, UFO Symphonic- Journeys Into Sound delves into the complex relationship between creativity, the unknown, and consciousness, and specifically the role music plays in all of it. Being a combination of speculation and personal accounts, both his own and those he collected from a variety of musicians, his "polyphonic" approach to the mystery of UFOs and other unexplained phenomena provides plenty of food for thought.

He and AP discuss stories and themes from the book, but also wander off into other fun territories such as weird Elvis stuff, the dangers of driving in Boston, and Italian-American superstition. Mike's insights and poetic approach to the mysteries of the world are a pleasure to explore. Check out his website, where you can also find his books, here: https://mikefiorito.com/