Pop Culture

Bahia Photo Solved

Click on image for full size version. The cultural reality behind the above Bahia photograph has been solved, I feel, quite correctly, via new information from a Brazilian, Mori of Forgetomori. This is especially valid, as Mori has clearly shown a good comparison to the area and the practice resulting in what is seen above, in the following images. Mori wrote me tonight: “It’s just a local covered in mud. The “horns” are his hair.” Mori has noted on the Forgetomori blog, in deeper details, the following solution: Coleman thinks it’s “intriguing, if not curiously prosaic”, and remarks that “anything [...]

A Bridge Too Far…For Some

You never know where a bridge will take you. This is the Devil’s Elbow bridge in Oklahoma, along Route 66. Photo: legendsofamerica.com Whether you have thought my attention to the Mothman links has been wonderful or weird, most folks, let’s say, have had an opinion one way or another. A few have not understood why I would even be interested at all. Yes, additionally, I’ve received grief from a verbal few for exploring a couple breaking stories to highlight the fact that dwelling just beneath the surface of such news – whether in Minnesota or China – a wealth of [...]

Free Books At “Halloween At Hadlock”

This Friday, April 17, 2007, is “Halloween at Hadlock.” I will be appearing at the Portland Sea Dogs – the Red Sox AA game – with Dan Gordon, the co-author of Haunted Baseball: Ghosts, Curses, Legends & Eerie Events (Lyons Press, 2007). Dan will be giving away five just-off-the-press editions of Haunted Baseball, and I will distribute five free copies of the 2007 edition of Mysterious America. We will be there to meet all kinds of folks, from baseball fans to ballpark Forteans. Friday, August 17, 2007 Doors Open at 5:30 PM Seadogs vs New Britain Game at 7:00 PM [...]

Fenghuang: Mothman in China?

Monday afternoon, August 13, 2007, a bridge fell in Fenghuang, China. Early reports are of over 30 killed, 46 missing, and 86 saved. (Update, August 15: The death toll is 36 with 23 missing.) You must look closely at the photographs above and below to see the humans and their recovery equipment; the bridge collapse was massive. Our sympathies to the families and victims. Unknown to the mainstream English-speaking journalists who are reporting this breaking news, you will want to know that the name of the Chinese location is heavily tied into myth, legend, and folklore concerning a special cryptid [...]

Cryptotourism Ideas

Go and Get Monstered What do you do with your little monsters this summer holiday? Take them to meet some of their relatives! Robin Gauldie goes in pursuit of monsters and other weird creatures…  Netting Nessie No monster hunt would be complete without a visit to Scotland’s Loch Ness. You can take your little darlings on a two-hour trip across the loch with Jacobite Cruises for £12 each (01463 233999, www.jacobite.co.uk). Rival “research vessel” Nessie Hunter (01456 450 395; www.lochness- cruises.com) does similar cruises for £10. You can stay in a two-bed lodge at the Great Glen Water Park with [...]

BBC Bumps Mothman Broadcast

Click image for a fuller size version. “The Curse Continues” © Charles Berlin 2007 The above original Cryptomundo exclusive cartoon* was created by Charles Berlin. It is made in the style of the “four-fold vision.” But you ought to know that What is Grand is necessarily obscure to Weak men. That which can be made Explicit to the Idiot is not worth my care.- William Blake, Letter to Dr. Trusler. Update: I will be on Coast to Coast AM, briefly after 10 PM PDT, 1 AM EDT, tonight (August 10-11) talking a bit about this topic. On Tuesday, August 7, [...]

Skinwalkers

One of Linda Godfrey’s illustrations of you-know-what. The movie Skinwalkers opens today, so it might be time to learn more about Skinwalkers: What Are They?, from The Daily Grail. “The Best Fortean Cryptozoology Book of 2005″ picked here at Cryptomundo was Hunt for the Skinwalker: Science Confronts the Unexplained at a Remote Ranch in Utah by Colm A. Kelleher and George Knapp. Kelleher and Knapp are the authors of the Skinwalkers item at TDG. I first wrote about Skinwalkers in 1975, in Creatures of the Other Edge, on pages 109-111. “They go very fast,” the Diné man told anthropologist William [...]

Mississippi ‘Roos On the Run

Mississippi is in the midst of a rash of kangaroo sightings. Here is a summary of what the wire services are reporting about the specifics. Bay St. Louis, Miss. (AP) – A kangaroo may be on the loose in Mississippi. Animal-control officers in Bay Saint Louis say there have been several reports in the past few days of a kangaroo hopping along U.S. 90. The mayor says he’s heard reports of people seeing a kangaroo four or five different times, and at first he wondered if someone was just joking around. Some officials suspect the animal was someone’s pet that [...]