Cryptotourism

Bili Ape Update

An earlier Bili or Bondo Ape foot cast from an information-gathering trek of cryptozoologist Karl Ammann. There’s breaking news from a recent exploration to collect data on the Bili Ape: Mystery apes of central Africa are chubby chimps (AFP) 28 June 2006 PARIS – A tribe of apes living in remote forests in the northern Democratic Republic of Congo are unusually large chimpanzees, not a new species of giant ape or a chimp-gorilla hybrid, New Scientist says. Zoologists became excited after people living around Bili, a town about 200 kilometres (120 miles) east of the Ebola River, recounted tales of [...]

Two-Day Cryptozoology Exhibit

Do you get the feeling that the art world has suddenly discovered cryptozoology, globally, all in the same moment in time? Some cryptozoology art exhibitions, such as "Cryptozoology: Out of Time Place Scale" at Bates College, last as long as the summer and beyond. Others, it appears, disappear almost as quickly as a sighting of Nessie. Take, for example, the two-day display at the Cumbria Institute of Arts (located in the city of Carlisle, in the extreme northwest of England, some 16 km from the border with Scotland). That exhibition, "A Study in Time," by Jennifer Holliday, will occur on [...]

New Coelacanth Video

A capture of an image from the Japanese research team videotape of a one-meter long coelacanth taken off Indonesia on May 30, 2006. As first announced in May here, some startlingly clear images of living Indonesian coelacanths have been taken. Now, a portion of the Indonesian coelacanth video shot several weeks ago has been made public. You can see a segment of the video in this short news clip on YouTube. While the news report states that 4 Indonesian coelacanth were videotaped, Aquamarine Fukushima’s coelacanth web page claims that a total of 7 were videotaped during the period from May [...]

Origins and Insights: The Exhibition

The Maine Sunday Telegram published an "Audience Section" critique of the new Bates exhibition. It follows: Sunday, June 25, 2006 Artists hope viewers let imaginations run wild By BOB KEYES, Portland Press Herald Writer LEWISTON — The female rears back, teeth clenched, arms ready to attack. She’s frightening, fierce and ferocious. But there’s something anatomically wrong. Instead of strong legs that would suggest her ability to spring, she sports fins and a tail. She is, after all, a mermaid. The creation of Minnesota artist Sarina Brewer, the "Feejee Mermaid" stands – or is it more appropriately, swims? – as one [...]

Vote the Yowie Slate In ‘08

There is finally a political candidate we can all back, totally, and support, unconditionally. Tim the Yowie Man may be running for election in Australia in 2008. According to the media reports out of Australia for June 21, 2006, the threat is a serious one: The wrath of parents may be the least of ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope’s concerns after the announcement the nation’s chief Yowie hunter may fight him at the next election. Tim the Yowie Man has issued a challenge to Mr Stanhope to reverse a string of Budget cuts announced on June 6 or face him [...]

Narrator of The Legend of Loch Ness Dies

Arthur Franz, a character actor whose voice will forever be remembered as the narrator of The Legend of Loch Ness, died at St. John’s Hospital in Oxnard, California, of heart failure and emphysema, on June 17, 2006, at the age of 86. The film was a 1976 documentary on the famed Scottish Lake Monsters, Nessie. Franz was earlier best known for his role in Invaders from Mars (1953). Franz, who lived in New Zealand until the last month or so, had been in failing health for some time and wanted to spend his remaining days in California. Franz also played [...]