There
has long been a rumor that in the late 1940s a serial killer stalked the Long
Trail in Vermont. And it is indisputable that between 1945 and 1950 at least 7
people vanished in the area, with only one corpse found. The Long Trail is a
hiking route that runs for 272 miles, the entire length of the state. A long
distance, but still small enough to be the roaming grounds for a serial killer.
Middie
Rivers, a 75 year old deer hunter, was the first to go. On November 12th,
1945, he went out, guiding a group of four hunters up the mountains as he knew
the terrain well. On the way back Rivers got ahead of the rest of the group and
was never seen again. A hunt by the state police, Boy Scouts, and locals could
not locate him.
Paula Welden
The
second disappearance was college student Paula Welden who, on December 1st
1946, told her roommate that she was going for a walk. The last person to see
her was a watchman at the local paper who directed her to the trail. A manhunt
again revealed nothing, but rumors circulated of her moving to Canada with her
boyfriend (this was proved false by the police) or living as a recluse up in
the mountains.
The
third victim was James Tedford who disappeared after getting off a Greyhound
bus to grab a quick dinner, in 1949. No one noticed when the bus took off
without him. His disappearance was only brought to light when other passengers
saw that his luggage was still there and an open bus timetable still lay on his
seat. He was never spotted again.
The
fourth person to vanish was eight-year-old Paul Jepson. On October 12, 1950,
Jepson had accompanied his mother in a truck. She left her son unattended while
she fed some pigs. When she returned the boy was nowhere in sight. Search
parties were formed to look for the child. Nothing was ever found. According to
one story, bloodhounds tracked the boy to a local highway, where, according to
local legend, four years earlier Paula Welden had disappeared.
Frieda Langer
Fifth was Frieda Langer who was camping with
her husband on the Long Trail. After accidently falling into a creek while on a
hike, she decided to head back to camp for some dry clothes. She disappeared. It
wasn’t until months later that her mummified remains were stumbled upon by some
hikers. Unfortunately due to various scavenging animals, the exact cause of her
death could not be determined. But at least her family had something to bury,
unlike all of the others.
When Martha Jones disappeared next on
November 6th, 1950, she was thought to have run off with her boyfriend
in Virginia, like the rumors surrounding Paula Welden, but this was disproven.
Once again a massive manhunt by the state police and locals found no trace of
her.
The last victim of this potential
killer was Francis Christman who, on December 3rd, 1950, vanished
while walking to a friend’s house, located half a mile away. Her remains as
ususal were never recovered. It is speculated that she may have accepted a ride
with the wrong person, as the night was bitterly cold.
Just like Dr. Who
It has been disputed whether these
deaths are connected. There have been “theories” (to misuse the word) running
the gauntlet from it being coincidence, to a serial killer, to alien
abductions, to a vortex sucking people into another dimension. The truth, for
those who care about more than a good story, will ultimately never be known.
I ran across
this little gem back in the old days of VHS tapes. It was at the bottom of a
bargain bin at my local record store. The tagline read “The only man alive who
can make the choice to help or destroy a mysterious force which has begun to
unleash its dread power upon the earth!” A bold statement. Even back then I was
lover of obscure films, so I snapped it up and about a week later popped it in
(I love films, but also am rather lethargic). I loved it! Sure it had a low
budget and was uneven at times, but overall it was a wild weird ride that has
stuck with me over the years.
The film
opens with a man on a water tower in New York City firing into the crowded
streets below, eventually racking up a kill count of fifteen. The protagonist
Peter, a devout Catholic NYPD detective, manages to approach to sniper and they
talk. The gunman is perfectly calm and when asked why he’s shooting at people,
states that Gold told him to, before jumping off of the tower.
Tony Lo Bianco in God Told Me To
After that
the floodgates open and an entire slew of murders occur, all done by perfectly
calm normal people, all claiming that God told them to. Eventually Peter
discovers a link. Each of the people had contact with a bizarre underground
cult leader by the name of Bernard Phillips.
Peter goes public with the God angle
and the city goes into a panic mode, with even more copycat killings occurring.
Some of the cult members contact Peter, and a brief meeting between the two
occurs, where the detective discovers that the cult leader’s power does not
affect him. He also uncovers that a similar set of events took place some 35
years prior.
Now here is where things get weird. His
investigation eventually leads him to an old woman who is his birth mother,
having found herself impregnated by a strange orb of light while walking home
from the New York World’s Fair in 1941, and giving up the child for adoption. He
confronts Bernard and discovers the truth - both he and Phillips are the result
of "alien abduction/virgin birth by an extraterrestrial (This is beginning
to sound more and more like Mormonism). Also here it is alluded to that Heyzeus
himself was another such alien birth.
Richard Lynch in God Told Me To
Peter is the result of his human
genes being dominant, which is why he is unaware of his true nature, while Bernard
is more like their unseen progenitor. Bernard reveals himself to be a
hermaphrodite and wishes to spawn a new species with his brother. He further
states that all of Peter’s previous attempts at children had died because Peter
subconsciously willed them to, but Bernard is strong enough to ward him off. Peter
refuses and attacks Bernard, which results in Bernard using his powers to
destroy the building and commit suicide. Peter is arrested for murder, and
responds to a question as to why he committed the deed with "God told me
to”.
Andy Kaufman in God Told me To
A few other
things to mention here. This was the film debut of Andy Kaufman who plays a
madman police officer who goes on a shooting spree during the St. Patrick’s Day
Parade. Apparently during the filming, Kaufman, while dressed up in costume,
began antagonizing and making insulting gestures to the crowd watching the
production. He was so provocative that several of them tried to jump the
barricades to beat up Kaufman and had to be held back by the director.
Additionally
the music for the film was originally supposed to be scored by the legendary Bernard
Herrman, who was also doing music for Taxi
Driver at the time. Apparently Herrman saw the film without music and came
up with a few ideas, but died later on that day. The film was dedicated to him.
The director then approached another veteran movie composer Miklos Rozsa who
refused, stating “God told me not to.”
Alternate title and poster
While I love
this film, critical opinion is very divided on the idea. In fact Roger Ebert
in his book I Hated Hated Hated this Movie only gave it one star. Stating, “there were times when I thought the
projectionist was showing the reels in random order, as a quiet joke on the
hapless audience. But, no apparently the movie was supposed to be put together in this way, as a sort of
fifty-two-card pickup of cinema… As I left the theater, dazed, I saw a crowd across
the street. A young man in a straightjacket… was preparing to be suspended in
midair hundreds of inches above the ground, and to escape, Houdini style. At
the moment he was still standing on the sidewalk- but, believe me, it was still
a better show.”
My
suggestion. Watch for yourself and make up your own mind. Caveat Emptor!
Previously
I did an article called Ten Great Graphic Novels Being Sold on Amazon for a Penny , which I found useful to feed my reading addiction. But as was pointed
out to me there are many more good books going cheap on Amazon. And so for
those who want more, here are an additional 10 great graphic novel going for
dirt cheap on Amazon.
The story of a dangerous relationship between curator Ila
Gardner and Nazi officer Rolf Hauptmann, as they are forced by circumstances to
play out their private lives in a public power struggle. Set during the Nazi
occupation of France during WWII, the story unfolds along two timelines which
collide with the revelation of a terrible secret and the realization that
sometimes the only choice left is the refusal to choose.
What
at first glance appears to be a charming wordless graphic novel for young
children turns out to be something more complex and much more sophisticated.
The language and even the alphabet are alien, but as human readers will soon
discover, the themes and stories are universal. These interwoven stories and
vignettes start out quite simply, but a darker, more complex side is gradually
revealed as alien characters act out very human problems, from peer pressure to
intolerance to the challenges of friendship.
Fuzz and Pluck: Splitsville by Ted Stearn A
David Lynchian children's story scenario where talking animals, animated toys
and regular humans coexist in a landscape of surreal seediness; that's exactly
what Stearn achieves, and the results are both dreamlike and picaresque as
lovable teddy bear Fuzz and his pal Pluck, a denuded rooster, find work at
Lardy's sandwich joint only to become separated and embark on strange journeys
of despair and violence.
A
jazzy, insistently rhyming roaring '20s period poem, banned in Boston when
first published in 1928. Penned by the New Yorker's inaugural managing editor,
is borne out by March's dither of hard-edged rhythms recounting the boozing,
brawling and fractious lovemaking of an all-night party ending in a murder.The
Wild Party is now given new life and expression, with March's text accompanied
by more than 75 drawings by Art Spiegelman.
Incredible Change-Bots by Jeffrey Brown Far away in space, there is a planet full of robots able to
change from robot form to vehicle form - the Incredible Change-Bots! Leaving
their war torn planet, the Change-Bots arrive on Earth, where their battle
continues - but at what cost?! Part parody, part nostalgic tribute, part moral
fable.
This strip features a disturbing and sidesplitting cast of
characters that includes latex-clad fathers, sadistic milkmen, vomiting robots,
malformed neighbors, incontinent inter-dimensional beings, decomposing clowns,
and other bizarre characters. This is an acquired taste and Cannon stands out
as a master of the "disturbing humor" strip.
The Jew of New York In 1825, Mordecai Noah, a New York politician and amateur
playwright possessed of a utopian vision, summoned all the lost tribes of
Israel to an island near Buffalo in the hope of establishing a Jewish state.
His failed plan, a mere footnote in Jewish-American history.
Petey & Pussy by John Kerschbaum This book is on the surface, the story of a dog and a cat
with balding human heads, but is more a character study of three (there is also
a suicidal bird) New York City guys, bumming around the Big Apple. It is an
interesting surreal journey that plays out extremely well. I wish to see a lot
more from this author.
Invincible Days by Patrick Atangan A collection of short stories from the author’s youth in the 1980s. As usual with this author the art is impeccable and the stories are well thought out and presented. Page design consistently follows a rigid nine-grid layout. Flat, expressionless animal faces mask the emotionally laden themes explored throughout the collection. These characters serve as voice for a shy Filipino boy baffled by Western culture and living in a house full of sisters. Empire State: A Love Story (Or Not) by Jason Shiga A Story of an introverted man, who follows a girl that has friend-zoned him, to New York City after writing her a letter describing his feelings after asking her to meet him on the Empire State Building. The work is done exclusively in red and blue tones, which
some people have debated the symbolism of, I took the colors to represent the
protagonist's level of comfort- Red means he's comfortable with his
surroundings, blue means he's ill at ease. Agree or disagree as you will.
Hope you found something on this list that interests you. For more reading suggestions try out my What I've Been Reading page. Have fun!
With the
recent controversy in the Church of Latter Day Saints, with several thousand
people leaving it due to the current demand that parents of homosexual children
denounce them and vice versa, I decided to look into the cosmological roots of
the Mormon church and … well what I saw sure looks like a UFO cult. Now most religious origin stories, at its core, comes across like a badly scripted D&D
adventure. The Mormon religion however comes across like a badly written
science fiction story. There are claims that the Book of Mormon
is the world’s first science fiction story (Unfortunately that is untrue, the
first universally accepted sci-fi novel being Somnium by Johannes Kepler written in 1608). Still I will postulate
that Mormonism is the world’s first UFO cult. Allow me to offer some examples to back up my statement.
Let’s get to
the meat of the matter. The God of Mormonism did not create everything ex nilio as did the Hebrew Deity, but
instead constructed the world from existing celestial debris. In fact the
Mormon God was born a regular guy like you, me, Ghandi, and Hitler. He
eventually rose past his mortality through a processes called “eternal
progression” and became a divine being. And later on his Jewish son Jesus, or
Heyzeus, or Yeshua ben Yoseph (take your pick) followed suit here on Earth.
This concept
of “eternal progression” or “exaltation” is a key element of the Mormon
proclamation. That if a person strives for purity and righteousness (as defined
by the boys in Salt Lake City) and to be “one with Heyzeus as Heyzeus is one
with God”, then a mortal man might become joint-heirs with Heyzeus and become a
God of a world. Now this part does sound a lot more like old school D&D, but it gets more sci-fi real quick. All of
this happens after you die, naturally.
The
requirements for “exaltation” have changed over time. Originally you had to be
white- as the Mormons’s proscribed that dark skin was the Mark of Caine and
a sign of damnation. Thus it was forbidden to marry a dark skinned person, and they could
never rise up to be even a low level cleric in the Church’s hierarchy. This
requirement was changed in 1978 after Jimmy Carter threatened to remove the
Church’s tax exempt status.
Nowadays a
Mormon adherent has to undergo a series of sacraments into order to become
“perfect”. One is that a man has to have a “celestial marriage” to an opposite
sex partner (the opposite part is explicitly stated) via an ordinance of
sealing ritual, which goes not only unto death, but well beyond. So be careful,
you will be stuck with whomever you marry until the heat death of the universe!
The celestial marriage can occur in person, via a proxy strand-in, or even
after the person has died. Under Brigham Young multiple celestial marriages for
men were required to continue on the road to “eternal progression”. This
naturally coincided with the Mormon’s former bigamous practices, the great legal
sticking point of their religion. This, along with the murder of Joseph Smith in
1846, caused the Mormons to exile themselves to Utah in 1848, which at the time
was outside the borders of the United States. The necessity for a pluralistic
marriage was later rescinded in 1890, but the practice continued for some time
after and still is in some isolated communities.
That is how
a regular Joe becomes a God. A bit nebulous I know, but the reality is that it
is a simple step-by-step process of sacraments, similar to the Catholic Church’s
first communion and confirmation. A route by the numbers procedure.
But what
about the Big Man himself? Mormon doctrine teaches that the Earth is not a
unique place, but simply one of many planets where human beings live (like Star Wars), all of whom meet in God’s
joint after they die. Each of these Earths were crafted by Jehovah and his boy Heyzeus,
who shows up and dies on every one. Jehovah himself was born a dude on an unnamed planet
where people like us live and eventually rose to become the God that we all
know and blame our problems on. Where this unnamed planet is has never been
stated, but the suggestion is that it is in a parallel universe, as none of the
worlds were created until Jehovah showed up. He establishes himself in a place
called Kolob, which is either a star or a planet (the word “star” is used interchangeably
in The Book of Mormon). One day on
Kolob is the equivalent to 1000 Earth years. Where this star or planet is has been up for speculation ever since
the idea was written down. Theory’s range from it being the planet Mercury, to being
at the center of the Milky Way, to its being a star outside of our galaxy
entirely... Or of course it could just be made up.
Moving onto
the birth of Heyzeus, to the Mormon’s: God literally came to Earth, fucked Mary-
despite her claims to not be worthy (is this the beginning of rape culture?)-
and inseminated her with himself, which overrode her DNA. Thus he created a
clone of himself (I assume Jehovah was Jewish in his past incarnation). He does
this in order to die and ascend, showing people the true path to immortality,
but unfortunately this wasn’t picked up on until over 1800 years after Heyzeus’s
execution by the state.
All of this is very science-fictiony. There
are several other cosmological and doctrinal elements which mirror Christianity
(regarding Satan and the fall of the Angels, and so on), but they are best
summed up in the cartoon below. Enjoy and caveat emptor.
Where
to begin here? The Turkish Star Wars is notorious in some circles for its
unauthorized use of Star Wars
footage (often it is rear projected while the actors perform in front) and swiping bits from the
sound tracks to Raiders of the Lost Ark,
Flash Gordon, Ben-Hur, Planet of the Apes, The Black Hole among several others.
The
actual name of the film is Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam translated as “The Man Who Saved the World.” It
was made in 1982 on a, presumably, low budget. But due to the very sketchy Turkish
laws surrounding copyrights made up for it by stealing all of its space combat
scenes from Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica.
The action sequences
are the most laughable scenes. Often our heroes fight large pink furry
creatures, obviously inspired from Chewbacca, but they come across more like
Gossamer from Looney Tunes. They effortless rip off arms and decapitate them all
without shedding blood. Also there are a number of mummy creatures, who look as
if they are wrapped in toilet paper, and can kill a man with one flick of the
wet end. These also cause our heroes no significant problem.
My particular favorite
part however has to be the training montage. To prepare for his final battle
our hero rips off Rocky and begins exercising to build himself
up to superhuman proportions. He does
this by pounding the flats of his palms onto mounds of dirt, punching boulders,
and hopping around with rocks tied to his legs. This last exercise allows him the power to bounce
off trampolines when the camera angle is low.
No copyright infringement here.
The
plot, from what I can tell, follows Murat and Ali, whose spaceships crash on a desert
planet following a battle, shown by using footage from Star Wars as well
as clips from the space shuttle launch. While hiking across the desert, with
absolutely no evidence they guess that the planet is inhabited solely by women.
Ali demonstrates the whistles he uses on women. However, he blows the wrong note
or something and they are attacked by skeletons on horseback, which they defeat
in hand-to-hand combat. The main villain soon shows up and captures the heroes,
bringing them to his gladiatorial arena. The villain tells them he is actually
from Earth and is a 1,000-year-old wizard. He tried to defeat Earth, but was
always repelled by a shield of
concentrated human brain molecules (shown as the Death Star). The only way he can bypass this is
to use a human brain against it.
The
heroes escape by beating everyone up and hide in a cave full of refugees. Murat
develops a romantic connection with the only woman there, who looks after the
children. (The romance is shown through many long eye-contacts and smiles from
the girl, but nothing more. In fact, I don’t believe she has any lines). The
wizard’s creatures attack and turn several of the children into monsters, their
blood used to renew the evil wizard's immortality. The three then flee the cave
and find a local bar, an obvious Mos Eisley Cantina rip off. The two men
quickly get into a bar brawl, but the villain suddenly appears and captures
them again.
The
wizard separates the men and tries to convince them to join him. He sends his
queen to seduce Ali, while he orders Murat to be brought before him. He offers
Murat the chance to rule over the earth and stars if he joins him. He possesses
the power of Earth's ancestry in the form of a golden brain, and all he needs
to conquer Earth is a real human brain. After Murat refuses to give up his
brain, the wizard shows that he has captured the woman and child. Meanwhile,
monsters attack Ali when he is about to kiss the queen. They are both disabled
by guards and then unproductively tortured by the wizard. Finally, the wizard
pits Murat against a laugh inducing giant monster in the arena. Murat kills the
monster and flees, taking the woman and the child with him. Ali is left behind.
Murat finds
out about a sword made by the 13th clan, who melted a mountain thousands of
"space years" ago to forge the weapon. Murat later finds this sword in
a cave defended by two golden ninjas. He gains his light sabre equivalent- a golden sword shaped like a lightning bolt, which is obviously just made from wood and painted gold. The hero runs around awkwardly with it, touching his enemies and killing them instantly. Murat goes to free his friend from a dungeon.
However, Ali becomes envious of the sword, knocks out Murat and takes both the
sword and the golden brain. The wizard tricks Ali into giving him the items.
Now possessing them, the wizard has increased powers of some kind. He kills Ali
and traps Murat, the woman, and the child, who then escape again.
Murat
decides to melt down the golden sword and the golden human brain and forge them
into a pair of gauntlets and boots. Equipped with magical gloves and
super-jumping boots, he searches for the sorcerer to avenge his friend's death.
After fighting monsters and skeletons, he comes face-to-face with his nemesis
and karate chops him in half. He then leaves the planet for Earth in the Millennium
Falcon.
The
film, as you have read, is astoundingly insane. I first found it on sale (long
before Youtube) at a little video store in Buffalo that specialized in out of
the ordinary films, and bought it on a whim. Some friends and I sat down,
cracked open a few beers (every bad film is made better with beer) and watched.
There were no subtitles in my copy, so we made up a plot as we went along,
laughing our asses off the whole time. From what I saw it had bad editing, grainy film stock, odd
choices of music, laughably cheap props, and amazingly bad action sequences. We
had no idea what was happening, but loved every minute of it. Now that’s the
definition of so bad its good.
On August 27th, 1968 blood
and flesh fell in 1/3 of a square mile area between the Brazilian towns of
Cacpara and Sao Jose dos Compos. The downfall lasted between five to seven minutes.
Later analysis determined that the material was of human origin and Type O
variety. Odd things have been reported tumbling from the sky for centuries, but
this was the first times items of this nature had been spotted.
Typical in these atypical events is
that an inordinate amount of some type of animal- frogs, earthworms, fish-
descends, leading people to believe that the cause is a tornado or water spout
that hurled a school of the hapless creatures into the sky, only to crash some
miles distant. But in this instance no such weather condition had occurred
within 100 square miles of the area, leaving puzzled meteorologists and
officials to shelve the incident in their unsolved mystery files.
There was however, two other odd
occurrences reported five days prior to the event. On the night of August 22nd
several unidentified flying objects (as nebulous a term as that is) had been
spotted over a dense forest area over 10 miles south of Sao Jose dos Compos.
Watchers described it as a “war between at least 30 balls of red and blue
light.” Others described it as more of a physical romp than a battle, as if the
orbs were playing. The spectacle lasted nearly an hour with each color
“whirling and chasing each other in a turbulent [and certainly un-aerodynamic]
manner” until they all suddenly “blinked out”. Naturally no rational scientific
explanation was forthcoming and apparently the indigenous people believed it to
have some sort of religious meaning- though the specific nature of this belief
has not been recorded.
The second incident occurred the next
day on August 23rd. A bus on the regular run from Sao Paulo was
found abandoned on the side of the road. There was no sign of the driver or any
passengers. Found inside the bus was a large number of bags and other parcels
indicating a moderate amount of passengers, estimates ran to about 20 including
the driver. There were no blood stains, bullet holes, broken windows, or signs
that anyone was forcibly removed from the vehicle. However it is noted that the
keys to the bus’s ignition were missing. There has been no sign to indicate what
had happened to the bus’s occupants. Whether this incident is connected to the
other two is up for speculation. For more fun try books by Rex Hurst