"We are about ready to go to war"

Richard Sryett was hosting Coast to Coast AM while George Noory attended an event in San Francisco last night. Though his interview with Marie Jones on mind control and cults may have been worthy, the real show was taking place in a virtual world. George Noory posted on Bellgab after months of offline time..

Noory's return seemingly stemmed from Art Bell's message on Facebook critical of Noory's use of the term 'wanna take a ride,' a catch line long associated with the Coast Bell incarnation voiced by Ross Mitchell since the 1990s. Noory addressed the charge of theft, saying, "sorry but Ive been using it since my days in St.louis and picked it up on Coast in 2001 when I started filling in for Art. We both got it from the movie Contact. Ross even had liners for us. Nothing sinister here folks."

Users pounded quickly. But it was Steve Warner, the BELLGAB user known as BATEMAN, who seemed to get the 'goatsie' the most.

Warner began his own radio program in 2013 called DARK CITY, and was well known for pranking gags of George Noory during live call in shows on Coast to Coast AM. At that time, Warner said he was approached by Noory about appearing on Coast.  During Noory's latest postings, Bateman continued pressing Noory about why he sent Warner a blank email message on April 23. Noory repeatedly denied sending the message, eventually admitting the possibility of something being sent, and posted "I was going to send you one (personal) a few days ago but never got around to it.....might have sent it blank during a commercial break? Steve I get 1000 emails during the shows and my staff is clicking saving etc for me until I read them."

Warner spoke to the HORROR REPORT hours ago about this private message. He said, "I think he actually sent it because he heard me on a podcast poking fun at him and this was his way of saying 'I'm watching you' with plausible deniability. Whatever the reason, it's funny he sent it at 3:30 in the morning when he's supposed to be doing his show."

Speaking more about his recent relationship with Coast, Warner again: "He started off telling me he wanted to do a 'spooky, yet funny' segment on Friday nights called 'Here's Bateman', I shit you not. Then he put out feelers after John B. Wells got the boot on weekends."  That was 2013 during Bell's SIRIUS XM stint.

Warner continued, "Frankly, I think the Coast brand is toxic at this point, and I don't need them or their 600 stations to be successful at this. We live in a vastly different media landscape than we did just a few years ago."

x x x

A vastly different world indeed. One where two late night radio hosts are at war on a message board.
And speaking of war..
Noory's other comment raised the ire of posters. He said,

I am the KING of late night radio. Long live the new KING!!! I deserve the crown.
This is a riot your upset over a king's crown lol..we are about ready to go to war and YOURE concerned about my avatar

The avatar in reference is a koala bear. Previously when Bell quit his SIRIUS job, Noory used a symbolic crown.  Noory went on to post last night, "Redacted would you like me to have a crown of thorns   that was for a king too?."

While it is unclear what 'war' may have been referred to---so many exist in the world after all--- there is evidence that Premiere Radio and the MIDNIGHT camps are beginning to prepare for a corporate battle of wits and skills.

With 'war' in offing, Art Bell wrote a late to the game response to the night of Noory postings.

In full,

I see I am late to the party, spent the evening with my Child Bride, great night.

Perhaps I have it wrong so if I do please correct me. Did Dave say we were going to War? Did he say something about wearing a Crown of Thorns?

Did he say he was using Wanna Take a Ride in St Louis? Really? Dave I can get you a hell of a special buy now price on the Arch.

I hope Dave was drinking heavily, otherwise I can not understand what would make him say those things, just wait till he wakes tomorrow Afternoon and reads what he wrote!

I told you, you can predict this guy like a clock, as soon as he knows I am coming back it begins and it will keep ramping up as we near July. Dave if you were running for office as a sitting President any advisor worth a crap would tell you to shut the hell up and stop helping the other side.

As most of you know I had made a deal not to strike first and I want it noted here that I did not, I simply reacted to recordings of Dave mumbling wanna take a ride and the clock struck midnight and Dave arrived right on time trying to rewrite History.

Time for bed, night all.

Art

 

The 'war' is on.. battle stations are armed. Words are slinging and flinging in HTML, FTPed, and instant..
The radio world is facing the internet world. That, perhaps, is the war..

Keith Rowland has acknowledged to the HORROR REPORT that Art Bell, in his July 2015 return to live internet radio, may not be able to beat the juggernauts of Limbaugh and Hannity, but the BELL camp is hoping to transform the landscape. However, as evidenced by the BELLGAB postings, there will be a number of virtual missiles launched prior to the summer skirmish.

The HORROR REPORT has reached out to Coast to Coast AM, and George Noory for comment.
At the time of this posting, there has not been a response..
The story will be updated if contact is successful.

 

Nepal shakes

Developing..

INITIAL NEWS DISPATCH FROM CNN

A powerful earthquake has struck Nepal less than 50 miles from the capital, Kathmandu, the U.S. Geological Survey said Saturday. It occurred at a depth of less than two miles, which is considered shallow.

The shaking was rated as "strong" to "severe" on the USGS ShakeMap. CNN sister network CNN-IBN is reporting that buildings are down and roads are out.

MORE:

 

The ride begins

Art Bell's MIDNIGHT IN THE DESERT begins in July. But the tension is already building before the online live podcast debut.

Nights ago, Coast to Coast AM host George Noory used the famous coined Bell term 'wanna take a ride.' It did not go unnoticed by the users of BELLGAB, who pounded on Noory's attempt to borrow the term--whether knowingly or unknowingly. Bell himself chimed in with a fiery Facebook post slamming Noory for the use of the statement.

The comment, in total,

My goodness, it has come to my attention that George Noory has started to use my signature line, Wanna take a Ride? It is just desperate and pathetic. Every time you hear him say that please remember July 20th when Midnight in the Desert starts. I would steal some of his lines, but that would be Petty Theft.

Art Bell

The comment was quickly liked by hundreds of fans.
The ride is going bust on Coast.
The real attraction begins again on July 20, 2015.

THE SUICIDE JOKER: Leto a villain that Gotham City needs?

For weeks, SUICIDE SQUAD Joker Jared Leto has been hinting as to how his version of the Clown Prince of Crime will look..
Tonight director David Ayer released the official LETO full makeup JOKER on Twitter..

Debate has ensued as to which JOKER is best.. Nicholson rates high. Ledger scores well.. even Romero is on the map.. Hammil's voice too.

But LETO?
Two camps have seemingly developed on the character and role.. One who loves it. The other who questions ..

I am joining the less popular but more practical third camp: The group that will just anxiously wait in anticipation to see if LETO can become the arch villain that Gotham City needs..

True Crime and true legends: The scariest stories to tell in the dark are based on the darkest hearts of men

Reality is scarier than fiction.. that is exemplified in a documentary that you may be interested on NETFLIX called KILLER LEGENDS. Chiller's documentary about true crimes, murders, and where some of our modern fears originate. You may learn something new.. and despite the fact no candy was ever poisoned on Halloween, the "CANDY MAN" section will still give you enough pause to check your kids' candy anyway..

I recommend the documentary for those interested in true crimes and urban legends.. this brings to light the reasons why we are freaked by hook hands, by masked killers.. and quite frankly, by people.

Among the things you may learn that you didn't know previously includes--besides no candy ever being poisoned for trick or treaters--are these facts: No babysitter killings ever happened in big numbers.. despite a number of movies being made showcasing it. The Texarkana killings are creepy--and even more creepy may be the yearly film festival showing THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN on a location where a grisly murder took place with the movie based in part on it..

And so many others.

Urban legends.

They all come from somewhere..

The other worldly nature of horror movies are not nearly as scary as the darkest minds and hearts of evil men who perpetrate evil and murder the innocent.

KILLER LEGENDS is scary for that reason..

FEELING LUCKY: Has GOOGLE found Nessie?

Go to GOOGLE today and click on their banner.. it will take you to a series of articles about how GOOGLE employed its technology to try to locate the potentially fake but yet elusive NESSIE, the Loch Ness Monster.  You can now search for NESSIE from your computer using GOOGLE Street View.  Google mounted a Street View camera on a boat to give people a 360-degree view of the 23-mile-long loch..

Give it a try. It's fun.

One picture, in particular, may create a firestorm of speculation about the long-living legendary creature:

It could be a log. Debris.. reflection.. refuse. It .. NESSIE. You be the judge

And you can continue your search with GOOGLE. The engine bringing the paranormal and weird right onto your own device. The power to find NESSIE now rests with you.

Go find..

 

Not even POPE FRANCIS could fix this number

If you want to know why Catholic Churches and schools are closing throughout the United States, look no further than this number released by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: $2.9 billion.

With a B.

That is the dollar amount that the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church has cost since 2004. It's an insurmountable number, and it continues to drain the resources of the religion..

From the CATHOLIC CULTURE story filed today:

Only 59% of those funds were allotted to settlements ($62.9 million) and therapy for abuse victims ($7.7 million). The remaining funds were spent on attorneys’ fees ($28.8 million), support for offenders ($15.4 million), and other costs ($4.2 million), according to the 2014 “Report on the Implementation of the Charter for Protection of Children and Young People.”

These expenses brought the total cost of the clerical abuse scandal to American dioceses and religious institutes between 2004 and mid-2014 to $2,895,629,230, according to the data in the current report and previous reports.

The report added that dioceses, eparchies, and religious orders spent an additional $31,667,740 for child protection efforts in 2013-14.

65% of accused diocesan clergy “had already been identified in prior allegations,” and 75% “were deceased, already removed from ministry, already laicized, or missing.”

75% of those who alleged abuse by diocesan clergy and 87% of those who alleged abuse by religious-order clergy were male, and abuse typically took place between the ages of 10 and 14. Most of the allegations involved incidents that took place between 1960 and 1989, particularly the 1970s.

 

The hypothetical humanity killer

I have been following this NASA website recently: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/pdc15/ .. if you fear a life-ending asteroid, maybe you should too.

The first and most important thing to realize about the page: It is all imagined. The asteroid and work to stop it from hitting Earth is all hypothetical.  But with each pretend statement about the asteroid and the would be trajectory, it seems very real. That is because the words on http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/pdc15/, though now unreal, could be accurate one day soon.  We could be facing a mass extinction event. Something bigger than Chelyabinsk, something mightier. It may hit land and cause an impact zone crater on Earth. Or it could hit water and flood coastlines with a massive wave never seen during our lifetime.

The Planetary Defense Conference is a meeting of scientists, engineers, policy-makers, and people in Italy. They are playing an asteroid pre-war-game. Mapping out the possibilities and speculating on the impact aftermath.

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/pdc15/ is where people could follow online to the games.

The games..
But on the topic of the site itself, there is rampant speculation about the 'game'.. and the chances it could all be a diversion meant to keep our mind believing it's unreal and really, in the end, "they" know something is coming. The conspiracy minded folk, of which I join in now and then, think that there is a killer stalking this planet.. lurking not too far from our existence. And NASA knows it. They are so aware of it that they are going to great lengths to post this 'war game' on the internet, along with bringing the biggest and brightest minds together. Because the reality, some would say, is that they ARE INDEED planning a course of action over a real event.

My take is a little less paranoid, at least about this game. I think the simulation is that: A simulation. But I think sooner rather than later, we will be hit with something on this planet. It is my hope that we have simulated long enough to get the reason response.

And I pray to whatever gods of life exist that we will have years, and not months, to prep. And maybe decades--not days.

Chelyabinsk should have been a wake up call to the planet. Instead it became a "and finally tonight" segment on local newscasts around the world. Science is regulated too often to the "in other news" portion after sports and weather.  But if Chelyabinsk would have hit NYC, or D.C., and would have been just a little bit lower in orbit, we may have been playing a whole new REAL game right about now.......

 

Plumbers of Walmart: Sometimes the conspiracy is as simple as that

There have been a number of theories concerning the reasons behind WALMART suddenly closing 5 stores for 'plumbing issues.'  Among the many things being considered by the speculators who theorize in such conspiracy:

1. Jade Helm related.


2. FEMA camps


3. Underground tunnels to protect us from a nuclear/bio attack


4. The elite prepping their bunkers for the yet unannounced asteroid


5. The end of civilization as we know it.

But .. perhaps CLYDE LEWIS was on to something the other night when he had an alternative alternative theory: It was all about the money..

Just yesterday, a report was filed by CNNMONEY about the United Food and Commercial Workers union filing an injunction with the National Labor Relations Board to fight the closure.. From CNN:

Walmart unexpectedly closed five stores last week in Texas, California, Florida and Oklahoma, for what it said were severe plumbing problems. That put 2,200 people out of work.

But the United Food and Commercial Workers union filed an injunction with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of Walmart Monday seeking to stop workers from losing their jobs. It wants the NLRB to force Walmart to rehire all of the terminated workers.

Walmart said the workers at the affected stores were given two months pay, which is required under federal law regarding layoff notices. But the workers could be out of a job by mid-June unless they find a position at a different Walmart store. The stores are expected to be closed about six months for repairs.

But OUR Walmart says the company’s claim of plumbing problem is just an excuse to punish workers for protesting for higher pay. Workers at the store closed in Pico Rivera, California, led one of the first Black Friday protests back in 2012.

Walmart didn't comment on the newest speculation..

I have read some reaction, though. A few say that this newest conspiracy theory was the mainstream theory and it's only mean to throw us off of the other REAL conspiracy theory.. which could be any of the above numbered conspiracy theories or a brand new theory yet to be publicly conspired or opined about. Get that?
Or ..
The truth could be as simple as this: Walmart wanted to stop the spreading protests by performing a Reagan. He fired the airline workers. Walmart got rid of the cashiers.

And when the stores reopen? I wonder how many SELF CHECKOUT lanes will exist....

My newfound respect for the TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES

...AND I DON'T MEAN THE MICHAEL BAY INCARNATION..
I am talking about the cartoon..
AND I DON'T MEAN THE 20TH CENTURY VERSION..

I rarely speak much on here about the cartoon world.  But thanks to fate and me having a 4-year-old TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES enthusiast, I am really getting to know the new NICKELODEON version of the show. We actively hunt down and try to acquire any new TMNT Nick toys at whatever unnamed store of choice. Some are pretty tough to find.  Our family has been hitting some roadblocks..maybe AMAZON.COM is our only hope.

The show itself is amazing.  I mean that. Not just because my son loves it.. not just because I am a TMNT fan.. but the storyline of the NICK cartoon is rough and tumble..ups and downs.. action packed and moving at times. It's well done, and it has spawned something personally for me..

For about two nights in a row, I have had a nightmare about the RAT KING.

A little background on the RAT KING. When I was a kid in 1988, I really don't remember seeing the RAT KING as a villain on the show. He made his first appearance in show #4 in February of that year..  The RAT KING has telepathic influences over, of course, rats. He has been an ally of the turtles, a villain, and evil doer.

But most recently in the NICK version of the show, he has morphed into a truly horrid looking creature who fights Master Splinter.

Though I am 34 and the show is just a cartoon, I have found myself dwelling a little too much subconsciously on the RAT KING, enough that he appeared in the last two nights of dreams. Last night, for example, I dreamed that I was trying to either hide something or myself. As the day goes on, I remember less about the dream. But what I do vividly recall from it: In the night time vision, the RAT KING was the entity hunting down either me or the unnamed hidden object. And it was startling--enough that I would consider the dream a borderline nightmare. I didn't wake up in a cold sweat, but I was sure glad the alarm clock alerted me to daybreak so the dream could end.

There are elements of the show that are great for kids. There are also some that are perfect for those aging a bit. As for me, as a TMNT fan, the program is dark and grungy but yet filled with enough humor that it's easy to watch. So while I am a few years behind, I am saying now: I endorse this show. It's great. NO matter what age you are, you can still be a kid at heart..

But the RAT KING?
He is a little creepier than the average villain.

A noteworthy item of interest. This morning when my dream was over and I groggily walked into the living room to try to start the day, I almost stepped on one of my son's Ninja Turtles action figures.
The RAT KING, no less...
Haunting at night. And a  toy haunting by day...

NOT THIS:

But this:

 

THE VISIT poster makes rounds after REDDIT posting

A user on REDDIT posted a teaser poster to an upcoming M Night Shyalaman film THE VISIT set for release on September 11, 2015.  The comments thread on the photo has taken on a life of its own..

Shyamalan 's THE VISIT tells a story of a brother and sister (Ed Oxenbould and Olivia De Jonge) who are sent to their grandparents’ remote Pennsylvania farm for a weeklong trip by Mom, Kathryn Hahn. The trailer for the film shows things going quite fine.. then tension builds when the two children discover that their grandparents are involved in something deeply disturbing.

Hence the warning: Don't leave your room after 9:30 pm.

A number of people online have noted the similarities in appearance between the VISIT poster and THE VILLAGE ..

DOLLS ARE CREEPY. But have you met Peggy?

There are haunting dolls. And there is Peggy.. And if you believe the hype surrounding this latest paranormal internet sensation, she is so powerful in her fear that she causes nasuea, headaches. And heart attacks.

Annabel Fenwick Elliott described the situation in the UK DAILY MAIL.  A number of other global media sources latched onto to the paranormal tale.

Here is the lowdown and what you need to know about this plastic piece of evil.. Jayne Harris is a paranormal investigator in the UK. She posted photos and a video of a doll that Harris claims is inhabited by the spirit of a Holocaust victim.. Viewers of the videos and content have written Harris with personal messages about how PEGGY, the doll, has affected their lives.. Some have complained of crippling headaches after seeing Peggy. Some reported visions of mental institutions and abuse. Others said they became anxious. And one said she experienced a heart attack..

The one video--creepy indeed--involves Harris driving PEGGY in the car. Peggy staring at the camera is a little unnerving.. I had to tell myself it is just a doll..
Just a doll.

And this is the doll:



And this is one of the videos:



From the DAILY MAIL story:

'One lady said that when she opened a photograph of Peggy, her computer froze on the picture and the room went cold.

'She then said she felt someone in the room with her and could hear them moving around.This lady was messaging me at the time via Facebook asking me to quickly advise her on what to do.

'I took Peggy down into an isolation area and requested that she cease her tormenting. Apparently everything returned to normal.'

Mrs Harris continued: 'Another lady yesterday said she had been experiencing light bulbs blowing and a presence in her home after she had been speaking about Peggy.

'With Peggy, it's not only while people are looking at her or watching her, it seems to be afterwards too.'

Mrs Harris, who has herself experienced migraines and feeling drained after working with Peggy, said she has never seen a case of this intensity before.

She runs an organisation called Haunted Dolls, and often gets random items in the post with no prior background.

Mrs Harris uses an array of gadgets and experiments to piece together the puzzles surrounding them.

There have been a wide spectrum of people attempting to place a story with Peggy, a background to the supposed spirit inhabiting the doll.  Two mediums believe she is a Jewish soul and a victim of Hitler's World War II atrocities.

There has been a Facebook group set up to study the ongoing odyssey of PEGGY..

But there are also many detractors who are looking at the PEGGY story as a bunch of loonies who need to be locked up. One comment on the DAILY MAIL article was funny enough to be reprinted here:

It really works I suffered bad chest pains by watching this! I thought I was having an heart attack but then I realised it was that dodgy kebab that gave me heartburn.

Even those who find this situation comical are also understanding that it could either be collective consciousness.. perhaps people giving the power to the doll to become fearful and mighty.. or just a group of people making each other scared.

Dolls are freaky.. Clyde Lewis showcased that brilliantly in 2014 when he broadcasted a live NET stream of Nickle in a dark room alone. The doll moved.

There is a little bit of a personal tale I'd like to relay, one that was brought to the forefront of my mind by Peggy. When I was a child, perhaps 4 or 5, I was at my grandmother's house for Christmas Eve dinner. My brother and cousin devised a very elaborate prank that scared me to this day.. They rigged my grandmother's doll (freakish as well) with strings, turned the lights off, and continued to call out my name to go into the room. A dark room.. with a little beam of light on the doll, from the shadows they would make the doll's arms and legs move. I screamed and ran each time.. And in a weird way, Peggy looks sort of like that doll of my childhood fears..

Regardless of truth or not to the paranormal aspect, Peggy is one frightening lady. Blank eyes. Motionless face. A doll that I would not want to see staring at me in a dark room..

And for that reason, I myself did not watch the videos. Perhaps paranoia.. Or maybe I'm much more comfortable believing that PEGGY is just a doll..
Just a doll...

 

 

It's all in a face: Wes Craven's perpective on changes in FREDDY's mug for NEW NIGHTMARE revealed

Freddy Krueger is still one of the most haunting horror movie icons of all time.. Robert Englund made that so, without him there would have been no sequels. But without the intricate and frightening makeup job that teams performed over the course of several movies, there would have been additionally no marketing and artwork that has accompanied the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET franchise--minus the newest incarnation that Hollywood tried to pass on to fans..

The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER interviewed Wes Craven about a number of different topics.. but the makeup of FREDDY'S face made the most headlines. Craven said he had no role in the MTV's changing of the GHOSTFACE face.. And more, reported by Emmet McDermott:

"In general," Craven says, reflecting on his own experience with the Scream sequel and beyond, "we didn't mess with the mask at all. It's something we didn't try to change. With Freddy [Krueger] and the New Nightmare (below right), I felt that I probably should have stuck with the original face (below left). [With Scream,] we just let Ghostface be Ghostface."

"It would have been safer [not to change Freddy]," Craven explains. "I'm not going to speculate in public, probably shouldn't have even mentioned it, but you know, sometimes you realize that something's not broken, so don't fix it. And that was the course we took on all the Screamfilms: Don't mess with that, it's just perfect."

For Craven, the success of the Scream franchise hinged upon the mask. No other mask would have done the trick. "No way. No way," Craven insists. "I knew it in my bones that [Ghostface] was a unique find, and I had to convince the studio that they had to go the extra mile to get it."

I thought then and do so more now after reading this HOLLYWOOD reporter story that the licensing fee to use the mask was much more costly than MTV would have preferred. Money talked. In this case, it became clear that changing the face would be cheaper, and they could spin it into somewhat positive press..

Craven's perspective on changing Freddy may be a commentary on MTV's change, too.  Will people still watch the MTV  version? Sure.. but will it feel the same? No.

x x x

While we are on the subject of FREDDY...ROLLING STONE recently posted a great article that NIGHTMARE fans may want to consider bookmarking or even printing if they're so inclined to save paper .. Wes Craven and others talked openly about some of the aspects of FREDDY he purposely planned. Such as the glove.. knives, Craven said, have been scary for 1000 years. With a glove consumed by knives, Craven led to a modern day weapon that had deep roots in the human psyche for generation. The ROLLING STONE article also details the 'Tina' body bag scene from the first film--this was personally one of those moments in FREDDY history that haunted me. Amanda Wyss, who played Tina, described the REAL body bag that was used during the scene:

I freaked out in the body bag. It wasn't a "stunt" body bag — this was a low-budget film, so somebody went to the morgue, got a [real] body bag and poked some pinholes in it. There's no inside zipper on the thing, they just zipped me in. I was just like, "Seriously?"

 

FURIOUS 7 1at 3rd

FURIOUS 7 continues to rampage the box office, pushing to $1.15 BILLION with a B worldwide .. it's making serious cash in CHINA, and despite a 51% dropoff since last week in America, it was still the number one film of the weekend..

Newcomers PAUL BLART and horror flick UNFRIENDED were no match for the spirit of Paul Walker. Or the CGI Paul Walker, in this case..

MALL COP 2 did better than some expected, coming in second place with $24 mil--not as good as his $30+  mil opener of the first film.. This movie was hit with horrid reviews. But often those pratfalls make people --not reviewers--last a little. But a full movie of pratfalls only? That doesn't sound great..

UNFRIENDED had a great word of mouth and got good traction from a youthful brigade of horror fans.. it earned $16 mil strong--strong because it was one of the best opening weekends for a horror film since THE CONJURING. Yes it's been that long..

While IT FOLLOWS was hoping for a wider release and good word of mouth, some not so great numbers have been resulting.. The film earned over $800,000 this weekend, but it also dropped 58% since last week. It also dropped 692 theaters .. But earning $13 mil + even though it only cost less than $2 mil to make? Well that's a success. Plus it's doing great and selling out in Australia.. 

 

WHAT'S YOUR FREQUENCY NORWAY?

Norway is about to set a trend. If you haven't heard, they are going to become the first nation in the world to officially dump FM--frequency modulation--radio.

FM, around since the 1930s globally, has been a steadfast friend to people driving or radio fans for decades.

It's obvious to say: The popularity of FM has waned recently.. though many still listen, they only do so often because they still don't have other options..

Options such as DAB. Digital Audio Broadcasting. That is the new system being embraced by Norway. The Ministry of Culture is making the switch. By 2017, FM will start being phased out region by region.  But the decision also seems obvious. In Norway, DAB listening now exceeds that of FM.

The squeeze is now on..
Whether other nations quickly or slowly follow Norway's lead is up for time to decide. It's clear that others will. And slowly by surely, as people give their love to the NET version of streaming instead of the FM version of sometimes staticy music broadcasting, the switch to DAB will become more of a global thing.

In America, though? I still sense an AM and FM lifespan to last a bit..  heck, there is still a market for ATARI, VHS, and even BETA. Radio will have a few more years before it goes the way of the FAX machine. Oh wait.. FAX machines are still around, too..

DAB, for the record, is used across Europe and Asia Pacific..  There are some interesting technical facts you can read on the means of broadcasting, should you want to.. But the important non technical takeaway: DAB is robust and for mobile listening--which is the really important fact. People  have their 'radios' everywhere--their phones. DAB works well for the new style of music listening of our era..  DAB reception quality first degrades rapidly when the signal strength falls below a critical threshold, whereas FM reception quality degrades slowly with the decreasing signal.

And now NORWAY is paving the way for a whole new frequency.

So what's yours, Kenneth?

The catch up weekend: It Follows

I am finally able to say I feel more on top of the horror genre. Friday night I saw BABADOOK. Last night at 945 in a movie theater, I saw IT FOLLOWS.

And it did follow indeed.

By now you surely know the concept. Kids have sex to transmit not an STD but a demonic other worldy force. Then it follows them. And wants to kill them..

Let me first stop before anything else and reflect on what I was told IT FOLLOWS was, and then give me thoughts. IT FOLLOWS was the horror movie of the decade, some said. Other painted a haunting picture of a movie that hits deep, that means something, speaks volumes about poverty and modern day economic problems, youthful angst and casual sex without thought. The horror flick has scored well on a number of different websites. Movie reviewers found little about it to be critical ..

So in the constant spirit of daring to be different, I had to find something, right?
Well it was tough.

There really wasn't anything done wrong in IT FOLLOWS, just a lot of things done much better than other films..

The best, overall, the utmost best part of IT FOLLOWS was the score.  I am considering purchasing the soundtrack but figure I may not listen to it  because it would scare me too much. The music was foreboding. It was somewhat similar to HALLOWEEN at times.. It caused your heart to race and quite often sort of forced you to glance around in the dark movie theater to ensure you weren't going to see someone follow you. The music set the tone. It was amazing.

The other tone setting aspect: The setting. Detroit, 8 mile, and the clash between the suburbs and the inner city. There were so much political, sociological, and economic commentary in the film, you lost track.

The cast of the movie further complimented the storyline. Maika Monroe deserves all of the credit she has been getting. She became a scream queen without screaming.. She is faced with a force that, if you follow it through, will never stop following her and eventually will catch up.  Keir Gilchrist played a believable role as Paul.  Jake Weary was the 'bad guy' but not really bad as Hugh. It's a tough movie to pin the blame on anyone in..  The rest of the cast compliment the best players in it. . . and they are all likeable and believable as people. In horror sometimes, we get the less interesting characters thrown to the wolves first. In IT FOLLOWS, we were given a cast of people we wanted to see live. We liked them.. Though a bit more background  could have been done as to why they all seemed jobless and sad, I think that was the point. Detroit. Economy. Manufacturing base crushed and kids just having too much time on their hands in the fraying safety net of the BURBS.

There were a few other things I thought were amazing..In IT FOLLOWS, we don't really know what the force looks like. It takes on the appearance of many different people.. so what is really behind those human faces? That is the creepy mystery that persists even after the movie is over.

And speaking of over.. the ending 15 minutes were intense. The movie is a little slow in building up a story, but the last few scenes are heavy in action and emotion, raw in horror, and epic in production. The final final final scene gives rise to the possibility that the viewer of the movie is either paranoid or the makers have perfectly set the scene for IT STILL FOLLOWS, a potential sequel..

But I hope there is no sequel.
I think this movie will stand on it own and be a place marker in the history of horror--and perhaps a game changer more than anything. It may sweep away the pointless and give us something we can cherish... a horror film that scares but doesn't do it in a cheap and pointless way. A movie about sex and with nudity, but somehow done in a way that doesn't cheapen the story.

But the music..
The foreboding music.

I think the scenery and the score of the film are dramatic and done the best of all.. I am not going to conclude, as some others have, that this is the best horror movie of the past ten years. But I will certainly say it has the best elements of horror that could make me eventually feel it was the best movie in a decade... that may have started last night driving home in the darkness... when even in a safe car, I found myself glancing at the night time air and pitch black forest around me to ensure that no one was following me.

Carrie Fisher unloads: Drunken scenes, Lando's dirty talk, and hangovers from hell

The UK TELEGRAPH is among the sources to compile from of the best quotes from a recent 'Date with a Princess' STAR WARS celebration.. Carrie Fisher became, as usual, the honest Leia.. Those in attendance were most likely either shocked or thoroughly happy at the juicy gossip on the display with Fisher and her French Bulldog, Gary, on stage..

As the TELEGRAPH reports, some of Fisher's own words.

She got drunk with the ROLLING STONES before the Cloudy City scene filming..

“And they’re a partying bunch of guys, and though I didn’t drink at the time, to be kind of amenable, or whatever, I drank. I used to say I’m allergic to drinking, and this would have been a demonstration of that. And we stayed up pretty late. Charlie [Watts], that one, he didn’t have a lot of facial expressions. He’s like the Darth Vader of the Stones.

“And we stayed up really late and got to the set about two hours later. And we weren’t hung over, we were still in our cups. And if you watch the movie you can see that: Harrison and I are smiling as we arrived in Cloud City. Doesn’t that sound like a euphemism?”

Lando Calrissian had a dirty mouth..

“Billy Dee Williams was funny. Right before he was going to kiss my hand, he’d say something incredibly filthy, and I would laugh. Something about the Force and it being with me… He was a lot of fun to work with.”

Fisher thought her kissing scene in STAR WARS was 'hot.'... She dubbed herself the 'space slut'..

On her favorite STAR WARS scene:

“Probably one of the scenes where I said something awful to Harrison. ‘Scruffy looking nerf-herder’, something like that. What a moron.”

Should you want more, here is the stream. Skip back in time if you want the juice.

The Plumbing of Walmart story in perspective

Walmart suddenly closed stores in a number of states last week.. All for what the corporation called plumbing problems. Every news account however details that no plumbing permits are being sought..workers in Walmart were suddenly without work.

Conspiracy theorists went hog wild.

JADE HELM!!
FEMA CAMPS!!
ASTEROID STRIKE!!!

If you want to hear an alternate, sensible, and true podcast about, I have an idea.

Last night Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis tackled the WALMART closing issue in a refreshing way, Clyde Lewis correctly said that this has nothing to do with FEMA camps or Jade Helm.. instead, if you look at the stores WALMART suddenly closed for the 'plumbing' issues, it was all locations where workers had previously protested low wages. Yes, there is more to the story. But conspiracy theorists have gone overboard. Sometimes the answer is much simpler than a vast conspiracy.
But we also know that the official plumbing story doesn't hold an ounce of water..

The full show here:

I Finally saw BABADOOK. And it made me quite sad

By now you most likely have too. And even more, if you didn't, you read enough to decide if would even appreciate the film.

I won't write a long winded review at this point, simply because I'm late to the game. But I will say that it was a little painful to watch.  The horror element is interesting. We are deflected at first, in a sense, and told to fear the BABADOOK.  The mother continues to try to burn the book containing the BABADOOK's words. The child, in this case a remarkable Australian actor Noah Wiseman who I think carried the film much better than even the main star Essie Davis, is also battling demons. His demons aren't typical, though. He has fears like other children.. he has sadness and grief. And in this film, he has a clearly mentally ill mother.

I am going to perhaps spoil it a bit, but not intentionally. Read on if you want..

I think the BABADOOK is a farce. I don't believe it to be real.. even more, Essie Davis's character Amelia is a former children's author. I think she understands the profound ways to either comfort to frighten children. In BABADOOK, she does both, sometimes simultaneously.  Her demons are in the basement in this film--the death of her husband defined her existence. She never fully mentally recovered from it, and as a matter of fact, descended into mental illness. The BABADOOK wasn't real, but she made it real. She created it in her own mind and convinced her son that it was real, too.  The 'monster' that Samuel was forced to battle in the end was his own mother--a mother who slipped by police and circles of friends with her mental illness. Instead of anyone helping her, they shoved her away. As we often do in society.

Samuel and Amelia had no family or friends in the end. They were abandoned.. they were alone. Amelia to somehow deal with her mental problems alone and her son, Samuel, forced to grow up without a father and under the gun of a mother who either may hug him or try to stab him.

The movie is heavy handed with metaphors. It's scary at first.. but when I started to consider what I thought it was really about, I was left was the final impression at the end of how sad it was. How hopeless..

Even though the final scene provided comfort after a movie of some rough stuff--and a dog strangling--I wasn't at ease at all. I think the mental illness--the BABADOOK--will rise again. You can never get rid of the BABADOOK. And in this case, as long as Amelia tries keeping her personal demons locked away, the BABADOOK indeed will return again.

Life and death viewed by the angry young man

Cancer is a horrid circumstance.. a outright awful ailment, and a continuous plague that hits without forgiveness or mercy.

I trust that you, the reader, most likely have been faced with a family member of friend succumbing to this affliction.. There are endless tales of horror from children's hospitals and nursing homes. No one can escape this scourge, so often..

I am writing this brief post tonight to get some emotion off my chest.

Recently, my uncle and godfather passed away after too long of a fight with cancer. He fought to stay alive. Fate would have it another way. When he lost his battle, he left behind a family of people who have yet to stop completely grieving his death.

And now, this night, a close friend of mine finds himself in an unsettling place: A hospital bed with tubes and monitors attached to him.. he beat one form of cancer only to find out it spread to another place. Suddenly, he has taken a major turn for the worse..

I hate cancer.
I hate all disease actually.

I'm 34. Half my audience may think I'm ancient. The other half probably thinks I still have a world of life ahead of me.  But as I age, I find myself becoming more serious in my studies of many things.. contemplating morals and justice becomes difficult with time, however. Billy Joel's ANGRY YOUNG MAN described a person who once believed in causes and had a pointless point of view but life went on no matter who was wrong or right. Those lyrics become truer by the day. By the moment..

As you age, you also say goodbye to many people you loved or befriended.

And often they leave with the help of a disease...
With cancer..
With the ultimate boogeyman of the medical system.

I bet any money that you--the reader--is also dealing with loss, or recently has dealt with it.  You have probably even read a self-help book or website explaining how to deal with loss.. maybe you have tried to vacation. Get away from things.. But it never goes away. There is no alternative to the life we have now besides not living it. While we inhabit our temples of the soul, we will be hit with crises and upheaval.. Sometimes smiles. Sometimes frowns. And sometimes, just like those we see dying before our eyes, the same sickness that took them..

I am angry tonight.
Sad..
Accepting of it all, too.
A mixture of emotions.

But that is what life has become.
Either it's a mixture of emotions or it turns into the final scene of THE MEANING OF LIFE..

So many highs.. so often lows.  So many twists and turns and ironic shifts of fate..

x x x

People sometimes become mentally disenfranchised after being drained by loss. The human ruin--one we hardly see..

Everyone has a story. Each and every person who walks too slow in front of you, or who is trying to pass you on the interstate.. the man who glances at you as you walk on a street.. or that elderly woman who vacantly stares out of a window of a dark and dingy nursing home.

Our stories are filled with joy and raw horror.
But we all have a story.

Maybe it's time we stop just judging everyone else and start accepting our differences, move on and stop caring about those causes that the ANGRY YOUNG MAN couldn't realize didn't matter before it was too late.

And find a cure for cancer..
Because that has to go away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYV6XTA4b0M

FORD IN HIS FLIVVER: THE MODEL T ALIEN NEAR THE SUN?

I found a few interesting links in my night owl reading last night about UFOs .. The UFO SIGHTINGS BLOGSPOT peaked my interest with a post about NASA’s sun observation satellite SOHO (the Solar and Heliosperic Observatory) on April 12, 2015 capturing some sort of a "T" shaped object or thing near the sun.  The story was picked up by BEFORE IT'S NEWS..

Also, a few years back, some speculated that there were photos of a UFO 'powering up' from the sun. With images, they said then, to prove it.

There have been some other recent oddities near the sun. Such as this from January, when a speed of light 'UFO' was captured and shown in a YouTube video..  In March, there was a report that NASA may have been attempting to smudge away evidence of a UFO near the sun.. STREETCAP1 was the source on that.

But this T shape is interesting. Because to some it could be the proof they need of a UFO. To others, it could be a hoax, scam, or simply camera error..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pgL4uAyyX4

Since the UFO blog posted this and it was picked up by one of the biggest conspiracy sites online, there has been a deluge of other websites--I guess you can now include the HORROR REPORT in this--reporting and re-reporting the T shape.

But I am attempting to find credible information about this T Shape on Lasco Satcam and simply am unable to. Perhaps because 'they' don't want me to.. or maybe because there is smoke but no fire, just a small cigarette that someone forgot to out..

While UFO blogs and other sites are reporting about this, the information of the T shape appears to have  come from the YOUTUBE user STREETCAP.   There is a collection of cool UFO videos on the Streetcap Twitter feed, as well. Including the T shaped oddity spotted by Lasco Satcam..

So I figured out the answer to this mystery: Let it be a mystery. Let people speculate.. SreetCap's video raises eyebrows. People will debate whether it's a lens mess up or an alien race in the shape of a T..

Or something else.

After watching this clip from AUSTIN POWERS, we may have our answer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju1UwmgkKgI

 

JARED LETO shares his JOKER face from SUICIDE SQUAD

....no white paint yet.
Just green hair.
Lipstick..
And lots of fans becoming quickly amazed at his teaser. Detractors, though, are dismayed by the appearance.

You can only judge for yourself..
So do so accordingly.

 

The end of the 20th Century STAR WARS in a trailer for the new one

DARTH VADER's mask and Luke Skywalker's voice appear in new STAR WARS trailer..

As does a symbolic few moments of mentions of STAR WARS of yesteryear..

Harrison Ford and Chewbacca appear, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngElkyQ6Rhs

The only thought I have: If the best they have is celebrating a movie from the 1970s, this is not a movie this generation needs..

Unless of course this film simply is transitioning to the next realm of star wars entertainment..  One review of the STAR WARS trailer: "Literally sobbing at my computer"

I think they will have a transitional movie.. It will have people say goodbye to the STARS WARS they loved (not the newer ones with JAR JAR but the real ones) and then present a new age of STAR WARS for this generation. But first the old folks need to be completely ok with saying bye to HANS and Luke And Leia..

The question to me is this: Will this be good without Lucas? And I say yes. Because Lucas gave us the not so good modern STAR WARS movies. I think the notion was fine, but in creation flopped. At least to me.

This new trailer is getting lots of fair attention today.
And most likely more will as they are released...

 

THE END OF CASH?

We all knew this was coming.. the moment when that greenback in your wallet could become a relic of yesterday.. when cash, once king, becomes a diminished peasant that provides nothing more but a punchline in a grocery store line.
Cash ..
King..
Move over, the new king is in town.

Dateline BLOOMBERG BUSINESS.. . reporter Lorcan Roche Kelly authored a story getting huge play tonight about a CITI economist wondering aloud if it's time to end cash. To end the green.. to get rid of the paper notes--remember, they are simply 'notes' alleging worth of a certain degree..

Kelly writes this:

In a new piece, Citi's Willem Buiter looks at this problem, which is known as the effective lower bound (ELB) on nominal interest rates.

 Fundamentally, the ELB problem comes down to cash. According to Buiter, the ELB only exists at all due to the existence of cash, which is a bearer instrument that pays zero nominal rates. Why have your money on deposit at a negative rate that reduces your wealth when you can have it in cash and suffer no reduction?

Buiter goes on to say the best way to address the problem would be to 1) abolish currency, 2) tax currency, and 3) remove the fixed exchange rate between currency and central bank reserves and deposits...

You heard that first thing right. Abolish cash altogether..

Buiter acknowledges problems. Especially the pesky elderly who are trained to use cash instead of plastic.. But he also said one way to solve this 'problem' is to stop printing notes worth less than $5..

Bloomberg correctly finishes its article with jab that this Administration will not abolish cash.. And that is true. Perhaps the next one won't, either. One day, though, one may. One day sooner than a political position making the decision could be a bank doing it for them.

Or.....people doing it for themselves. Technology will advance.. so will the chances of people figuring out that cash can stay at home. Swipe the chip safely implanted in your arm. Bar code your brain..

Ditch the paper.

Cash was king.

 

The paranormal getting normal: Class of 170 joins up in Rome to fight the Devil

Since Cardinal Bergoglio assumed the title of Pope Francis, a global exorcism frenzy has seemingly resulted. Some even claimed that Pope Francis himself, when greeting people in Rome, performed an exorcism himself...

Francis is being credited (or blamed) with bringing the ancient Rite back to the modern church and making it pop cultural popular..

New reports from Italy have gone further.. 170 people, students of the paranormal in a sense, have joined up to learn all things satanic..  The Vatican Congregation of Clergy organized by the Sacredos Institute are offering a week long class on exorcism and liberation. Demon fighting.. 

Father Pedro Barrajon, the organizer of the program, said that the awareness and popularity of the course is evidence of the evil in the world..

Recently another high profile Vatican exorcist, Fatger Gabriele Amorth, said that ISIS itself is proof of satan and that ISIS is, well, SATAN..

With all of the news articles recently propelling exorcisms to the forefront of media, some are poo pooing the idea of a paranormal evil entity active in our world. Some, as atheism and non dogmatic belief systems rise, are against the notion of satan. Even some non denominational religious believers would argue against Pope Francis' attitude towards 'evil' in the world..



Today the exorcism article is making the rounds online. Drudge picked it up and put above the proverbial fold..

When the paranormal makes top news story status, then you know you're living in an amazing and scary place.

 

The Epic storm in Belarus: The day turns into darkness as huge haboob sweeps in

The video tells the entire story ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC_sV-7-msI

This video is from the city of Soligorsk.. The daytime literally turned into darkness as the massive storm swept in..

I don't care who you are. This is frightening and would have been if you were there..

Movies about what scares you. Or the kids.

Nelson Greaves is getting some positive press about this week's horror release: UNFRIENDED.. the movie is a twist on the safety net of the internet--a net that isn't safe at all, as we know.

UNFRIENDED takes viewers down the road of what scares him about cyberspace. Matt Barone in WIRED explains the genesis of UNFRIENDED. One day, Greaves got an email from a friend. The scary part was that the friend recently committed suicide .. Barone goes on to write in WIRED:

“It was so emotionally troubling for me,” says Greaves. “It’s such a simple thing but it made me stop and say, ‘This is like something out of a scary movie.'”

After that, Greaves started thinking about how the Internet is in many ways a secondhand cemetery, housing millions of social media profiles created by people who have passed off this mortal coil but left their Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr accounts active. That dovetailed with discomfiting memories of being a kid in the early ’90s and seeing his older sister spend hours in AOL chat rooms without ever knowing what what her chatmates looked like—for all she knew, she could have been chatting with, as Greaves puts it, “dirty 40-year-old men.” The inherent creepiness of anonymity, its potential for malevolence, always stuck with him.

The idea of monsters and FREDDY KREUGER type characters in horror movies is so cliche at this point.. the generation who is budding today with youthful vigor doesn't get freaked by Michael Myers or Jason. They are simply laughing stocks of the 20 century, relics of a time when movies were just slashing and dashing their way to cheap quick cash at box offices..

But the internet? Now that can be scary.

I think TUMBLR can often be scary..  I recall vividly the moment on my personal TUMBLR page--one I don't update much anymore because I just quite frankly thought about it too much--when I posted a family photo of me with my wife and son.. And then the photo got reblogged on another page.. But then it got reblogged on a really not so good page. I asked for the photo to be removed, the person complied, but I was sort of amazed and yet appalled with how easy it was for my personal items to be taken from me. Until it dawned on me, or hit me like a freight train: I put it out there. I was the problem. Me. I didn't realize the power of a clunky social network. How can I possibly blame someone else.

This is off the path of the movie UNFRIENDED. The actual film looks, well.. a little clunky itself. The reviews are mixed. I don't doubt it will have a successful quick fortune at the box office, even if it's not in the number 1 or even 2 place. It will also have a longer lifespan when it eventually gets to NETFLIX and others.

However the idea of the movie is what fascinates me more than the movie itself.

I remember when HALLOWEEN 8 tried an online angle way back in 2002. The movie, HALLOWEEN RESURRECTION, followed the cast of characters as they live-broadcasted a show from the Michael Myers house. Of course we know how that ends. The movie wasn't received very well. It was a disaster. It failed miserably. I don't think the concept was a failure, but perhaps the use of the internet in horror was too soon. Or maybe it is because the premise was just wrong. Instead of showcasing the internet as horror, Akkad (RIP) thought Michael would be more frightening. He wasn't.

What UNFRIENDED may be getting right: The chills and spills of the NET and how often it can give you a little bit of hair raising moments. UNFRIENDED is speaking to bigger issues ... social issues.. pop culture issues. Real issues. The fact that the monster isn't some supernatural being, but instead the vast information superhighway, now that's scary. Because we are so connected, and we are so often at the mercy of the anonymous creature or villain on the other end of the road.

When I read Greaves anecdote about getting an email from a dead friend, it reminded me iof something I wrote on  February 2014, I wrote an article on the HORROR REPORT about how, if ghosts and EVPs are real, they should be starting to appear on Facebook and the internet any time now. Then, I wondered what it would be like to suddenly get a live message on Facebook from a friend you know is dead. I spoke personally about a friend I knew who did in fact die and leave a beautiful family behind. And I was as much struck then as I am now about how Facebook pages become milestone memorial sites, with profile pictures frozen in time of the person who passes, and constant updates are thrown on the wall by friend who wish happy birthdays or Christmases, or just pop in to say they miss the person.  Maybe eventually, so as long as EVPs and contact from the dead is real, they will also learn how to use Facebook and update their page from beyond the grave.

In UNFRIENDED, the bullied soul, someone who committed suicide, enacts revenge on the cyber bullies who caused it.
Now that is scary for this generation.

Notable headlines from the world at large

Cunning cowards and chaotic crises. The world at large is as bizarre and frightening as always.. The HORROR REPORT hasn't curated much news as of late with some personal duties that needed tending to, but here's a snapshot of some things that matter and many that probably don't from sea to sea and beyond..

Why not start the news update with perhaps the most dangerous for humanity: An astronomer is claiming that an asteroid the size of the Statue of Liberty is on a collision course with the planet earth.. Dr Judit Györgyey-Ries, astronomer at the University of Texas' McDonald Observatory, believes the giant rock could create a huge impact when it reaches earth in around October 2017..

 

The scary real news doesn't stop with asteroids lurking beyond the planet's ozone.. REUTERS has an exclusive story running about how the NY branch of the FED, worried about 'natural' calamity, is adding staff to its satellite office in Chicago..  I can't help but think  a bit about the story we, and many others, reported last night: WALMARTs around the nation--5 of them--all shutting down suddenly because of 'plumbing problems.'    Customers are skeptical of that claim.  SO are workers. So am I..  And while I am not alleging any connection between the WALMART plumbing claim and the NY FED movements to Chicago, I am stating for the record: Everything seems to be a creepy hair trigger away from disaster as of late.. moments in which we seem to think that our safety is fleeting and chaos is knocking on our safe front doors..

 

More fear and loathing in Vegas. And everywhere else.. Scientists at the European Science Foundation are warning every person on earth that a volcanic eruption could destroy humanity.. that we will be back to a time when we existed during pre-civilization days.. and that the human race will be devastated by the natural occurrences..

 

More news from the information superhighway about the highway to hell..
Large scale WMD drills hosted throughout Iowa...
Realistic Military Training in California, Arizona...
Marine unit drills at sports park...
Pentagon drafting thousands of ‘cyber forces’ in prep for cyber emergency 

 

With evil and darkness looming, religious people seemingly are gearing up for battle, too. Take for instance these headlines: Most British dioceses now have an exorcist at the ready..  From the city of Rome: A high profile exorcist is claiming that ISIS is Satan.  Father Gabriele Amorth says that the Holy Spirit exists. And now is in a spiritual battle with the true evil, ISIS.  The UK TELEGRAPH says that the Pope Francis effect is the reason that the exorcism boom has occurred. Perhaps it goes deeper.. perhaps it can be chalked up to the fact that people are truly feeling that the earth has been suddenly shrouded in spiritual darkness.


 

With all of the negativity, it may be hard to believe there is hope that someone, someone alive today as a matter of fact, may be the first person on Earth to live until 1000. Can you imagine living to 1000? Would you want to? Most people I asked today said no. . . until I mentioned that it could be  a healthy life and that their family may also be able to live as well.. Suddenly their answers shifted towards the affirmative. And they accepted the new possibilities of a long life..

 

Let me quickly talk about a few things that really don't matter. But they are most likely things being talked about by talking heads on talk shows that have endless talk.. Things like this: Hillary Clinton faked a photo op .. made a staged Iowa event look like a real campaign stop.  People who lived through the 90s shouldn't see this as any amazing feat. Just another day in Clintonland. Speaking of Hill's hill of beans, BUZZFEED is splashing headlines on its site about how, according to their reporting, Hillary Clinton flat out lied about having immigrant grandparents..  But as life goes, every normal event--politics and scandal--has some weird and often paranormal aspect to it. Such as this: Hillary Clinton's father's tombstone has been topped..  I fear whoever may have performed of vandalism doesn't realize that, just plain out, you don't mess with the dead.. unless someone didn't do it..

And now the rest of the story....

NETFLIX released information today showing that they are doing well. More subscribers.. more profit.. But a deeper look into the numbers may reveal a bit of a different fact.. Content costs are skyrocketing, and some analysts say that the financial picture at NETFLIX continues to falter..   Rosy Scenario? Or Blight and Plight..?

Things going downhill since the roast: Justin Bieber was put into a chokehold and thrown out of an event with DRAKE..

From movies to music.. now FURIOUS 7 soundtrack is Billboard number 1..

WONDER WOMAN has a new director..

ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK gets another NETFLIX season..

GUITAR HERO coming back!

x x x x

THE 'PLUMBING OF WALMART' CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Six Walmarts closing all at the same time in different cities. For six months.

And 'plumbing issues' were blamed..

Employees given no warnings.. shelves were completely stocked. Just five hours notice was given at a California location..

And as you can imagine, countless conspiracy theories are abounding all across the Internet..
This video summarizes things quite well:




This is a little creepy if I saw so myself..

A few news articles, mostly local, are picking this story up at this point.
One article posted on Tulsa's CHANNEL 8 about how the closing has come as a surprise.. they sum it up this way:

The Walmart on Admiral and Memorial Drive closed for repairs Monday night. Tuesday afternoon, customers were still trying to get in.
The message about the repairs may not have made it to all the customers, but for employees like Dane Humphreys, it was loud and clear.
"There are a lot of things that don't seem right to me," said Humphreys.

No it does not seem right.

MIDNIGHT IN THE DESERT SET; ROWLAND AND BELL CONFIRM SUMMER RETURN

Art Bell and Keith Rowland have made it official: There will be July fireworks in 2015 .. the talk show legend is going to go his own way.. A podcasting style as opposed to the terrestrial or even satellite radio he did previously. This time he is greeting the 21st century with open arms, working out private deals to play music, hoping that fans sign up in big numbers to help his return, and beaming himself to every smart phone that wants him.

The show will be called MIDNIGHT IN THE DESERT.

Bell posted two messages on Facebook tonight:

Midnight in the Desert is on the way! It is official now, Starting in late July we will begin streaming a full show from Mon-Fri 9PM- 12AM P.T. It will come to you Worldwide on the Internet in 64Kbps Stereo on Tune In which has a free app available for download right now.
Keith and myself have come to a agreement and the main Studio gear has been ordered. There is a great deal of work ahead and all of you who are friends and fans will have to help out when the time comes by spreading the word far and wide.
Wanna Take a Ride?
Art Bell

And the next:

From Keith: The Final Results, Art Bell IS Coming Back!
POSTED ON APRIL 14, 2015 IN BUMPER MUSIC, RADIO SHOW | 1 VIEW | LEAVE A RESPONSE
After extensive analysis and elongated negotiations with several suiters, we have decided that we can go ahead on the planned launch of “Midnight in the Desert” in late July, using a business model that will allow us to manage the entire operation on our own.
As was hinted by Art via his Facebook feed, we thought about it, compared the numbers and decided we could pay for bandwidth, pay the commercial licensing fees, pay our own overhead and still be financially viable, assuming the following conditions:

1. We have a considerable number of fans subscribe to a membership service that allows you to access the archived shows anytime via the website for a reasonable $5 / month.
2. We can sell advertising to be played during the breaks during the show. Not a lot, but enough to help pay for the music licensing during the LIVE FREE stream.
3. We can successfully curb pirated posts of our content to the Internet.
We’ll be operating under a certain specific licensing model that will allow us to ramp up from a “small webcaster” status into a large broadcaster in the future. It is imperitive that we earn enough through subscribers and ads sales to pay the bandwidth costs and music licensing fees. We believe that we can ramp up successfully using the current models in place at this time.
However, this happens to be the year (2015) that music industry participants are negotiating the next 5 years (2016-2020) rates for music licensing on the Internet. It is a wide open arena, and some license models may not survive. But we believe that we can operate under the current 2015 model for 6 months, and eventually fit into a 2016 model that is still cost effective.
We hope to recoup all of our investments within the first 6 months, so we can better endure the cost increases that will inevitably happen in 2016. If the fans support us with memberships and the advertisers are satisfied, we should be good for a long while.
Keep watching here for the launch date announcement and further updates as we can pass along. We’ll let you know when it’s time to promote the show.
— Keith and Art

 

A copy of the text was also placed on ARTBELL.COM to inform readers there of the return..

I do have a few critical thoughts regarding this. While on one hand I am celebrating the return, there's a little part of the 20th century boy in me that will miss the radio aspect. There are only about 2 shows I still actually listen to on radio. I have accepted the podcast world. I love it, as a matter of fact.. I think Art will be best, only though, on live radio. I am happy he is giving a free live stream with downloadable content afterwards...

As for the pirates? I don't know if there will be an efficient way to stop them. Recently Art Bell has posted on BELLGAB asking for users there to become his deputies around the NET this summer, scouring the sites of the hinterlands of HTML for any and all pirate streams. And then threatening legal action. But that is plugging a leaky hole in a flooding dam.. it's not just that easy.

As for the six month window, that is going to be a risky gamble.

And there are some, even on the ART BELL website, who are shaky on the return. After the quick SIRIUS XM quit--when fans were left trying to return hundreds of dollars in merchandise to the satellite company after DARK MATTER suddenly ended after Halloween--some fans have expressed hesitation to sign up for a monthly fee in return to hear Bell.  The other side of that coin, however, presents a much different picture of the situation at Sirius. Coast to Coast AM quickly showed up on the INDIE station after Bell left. Along with that, there seemingly were other things happening behind the scenes that perhaps even Bell will address this summer on MIDNIGHT IN THE DESERT..

I think I'll make a prediction: Those fans that are hesitant today will be signing up tomorrow. The talent that Bell has will be hard to pass up, especially when compared to the monotone moronfest that Coast to Coast AM has turned into over the past several years since Bell's 2010 final departure from the 'hot air' of that show.

Summer is set.

Barbecues.

Fourth of July fireworks.
As the long and hot summer nights fill the air with heat and murky humidity, Art Bell will once again be broadcasting from the high desert for the world to hear. This time in a new century style..

Age before beauty

Let me first say, politics is a blood sport and I really have lost interest of the years. It amazes me that we teach our children not to bully each other, and laws are passed stopping them, but yet politicians have free reign to destroy each other and use NSA secrets or back alley Sallys to their advantage. The more dirt the better.. the more chances a politician can be destroyed in front of the media spotlight.. And then the other guy wins.


Though I am politically an atheist at this point, I enjoy watching politics from a distance and see how the actors play their roles.
At times it's clumsy..at times it's infuriating.
And the media? Oh that media..

Hillary Clinton has announced that she will announce she is running for president. That happens tomorrow, Sunday. The strange part, in my political analyst mind, is that she is choosing to use the internet to feed a video to supporters saying she is going to run for President. No rally or big speech. Instead, a quiet video uploaded to the net.  In a sense, that's creative. In another, it misses the point. It loses the excitement.

Hillary Clinton has a lot of work to do. There are Democrats that really don't want her to be president. And some of the Democrats who don't want her to actually wanted her to in 2007 and 2008--until Barack Obama started his quest for the White House. The Clinton vs Obama match up was one for the ages. Tears, fears.. "3am ads," Obama jokes at debates about her being likable. Even Bubba himself reportedly was enraged. And Bill was forced into going to Girardville PA and eating a Tony's Screamer during the St Patrick's day Parade, all for the campaign, and something his stomach  may yet not be completely healed from.

I personally think there is something else that will work against Hillary Clinton. The media is going to start pushing the image of her as an aging war hawk, someone who has seen her years and now has become withered with time.

Remember this 1995 TIME magazine cover?

That is Bob Dole. The cover story came early in the campaign. The media summed it up. He was old. Too old. By the time October came when Bob Dole literally fell off of a stage during a campaign event in exhaustion, the media's prediction came true. He was indeed too old.

Now keep in mind, Bob Dole was 72 then. He's 91 now, and still alive. And from interviews I see when him from time to time, he also still has a full mind and spirit.

Hillary Clinton will face the same. She's 67, not the same as Dole's wrinkled banana was at the time he sought the presidency against Hill's Bill, but she's aged nonetheless.

In reading media reports hyping her bid for the presidency, I am confronted by one thing that the Hillary campaign is set to do: The propaganda is going to be amazing. Which is what a good campaign does, don't get me wrong. Someone needs to tell Rand Paul that, he's been floundering since he announced and is blaming the media instead of oiling his machine that needs oil internally.

But with Clinton, the posters and images, buttons and shirts being used are all featuring a much younger Hillary Clinton. They are showcasing her presidential candidacy photos from 2008.. they are living in the past. Take a look at these two AP photos of people inside the Hillary super PAC office. And check Hill's images being showcased:

 

Photo number two especially is promoting he younger more energetic Hillary.

Before the stroke.

Before Benghazi.
Before the baggage.

What is my point?

My point(s) follow:

1. The media is going to be a bit biased at first. They won't call attention to Hillary's age at first like they did Dole, but they will. They love a good feeding frenzy. And if someone younger and more exciting comes along in the Democratic party, Clinton will suddenly be characterized as an aging beauty of the 20th century, not ready for the new times


2. The Hillary Clinton campaign is going to use old images of Clinton to create a reality that existed then, but not now. The years are what years are: Unkind. Men and women wrinkle over time. Faces change.. the scars of the planetary revolving get noticed. And yes, we get old. Hillary Clinton is not a spring chicken. But eventually her campaign will have to come to grips with that. It appears they are recycling old images--images that don't look a thing like Hillary does now.

While I said before, I don't like taking sides in political fights because, in reality, I think I am much more nuanced than that. We all are, if we stop and think about it. The political parties are like manmade religions. Ironically, people go to church on Sunday and the political shows also air Sunday morning. (Not that either church or political shows matter anymore, of course.)

However the nuttiness of the political process, from a distance it's surely fun to watch.

I consider presidential campaigns like I do Super Bowls or World Series with teams I don't like: I love watching the process and not having to take a side. Of course I vote..and often for the lesser of the evils. But don't we all?

I am fascinated by how Hillary overcomes her State Department years. Her Benghazi 'what difference does it make' comments. Her angry tirade in front of Congress about the terrorist attack. Her email server oddities. And yes. The elephant--or should I say donkey?-- in the room: Her age, once it eventually becomes an issue. As we all know it will.

THE GOOD OLD DAYS. DOLE WAS OLD. HILL WAS 50. The future was ahead of her

 

The Hillary we know now

 

Art Bell and Keith Rowland plan to go it alone, will broadcast independently this summer

Art Bell, back in his time, had a different take. He did politics for some time. But changing the format equaled a success that has been unparalleled by any in comparison.

Art Bell is coming back to radio. But will people back to him?

There are lots of people happy about--including me, to be honest. I have been a proud card carrying member of the BELLGAB.COM forum for several years, joining in a strange arena of general disgust with George Noory and the state of modern radio..

And speaking of modern radio..

It's a cesspool of politics. Constant banter about material items that have useless end results for those who debate them. Issues that really don't matter. Gay wedding cakes, for one.. And many other things to divide a nation that is already divided into small divisions of divisions that don't have a chance of ever getting along with each other..

I think it's fair to say that Coast to Coast AM, the 1990s and early 2000s version, inspired a nation to accept the paranormal or at least question it. It led to countless ghost hunter shows, added to the aura of creepiness of the X-FILES, and make lots of night shifters and night owls hear something few others did: A bizarre four to five hours of overnight programming focusing on the absurd, the bizarre..the science.. and the shadow creatures. That may or may not exist.

And Richard C. Hoagland. Who does exist. As does his hair..

 

But a return of Art Bell?

In a market saturated by fools and frauds, it is a little difficult for me to see where Bell fits in the new scheme of things..

Radio is mean and cruel now. Some may say it always was, but regardless of history, it certainly is now. It seems that everyone who has a chip on their shoulders when they call and opine. It would appear that everything--from religion to science--has someone who backs it without prejudice or many times even logic.

Art Bell did not.

He created a new category of media that did not exist before his venture into the strange activity late in the night.

 

When Art Bell returned to SIRIUS XM radio in 2013, something seemed off. The opening intro, the guests.. the format. SIRIUS XM did not seem to be the rightful home for Art Bell. The satellite company's chief talent, Howard Stern, certainly did not welcome him with open air.. Lots of others poked fun at Bell for disallowing cursing no his unregulated program. And then when Bell chose to ask Sirius to be permitted to broadcast his show on his own website, he seemed to have an inability to grasp the notion of the contract he signed.

Little did anyone know at the time, of course, was that Coast to Coast AM was working behind the scenes to secure Art Bell's spot on the INDIE station--the home that Coast still has today on XM..

Art Bell has been toying with fans in various places for months. On BELLGAB, he has become a regular contributor to the message board site. On Facebook, he drops messages from time to time about his plans.

Tonight, he posted what seems to be a near-maybe-soon to be decision on his future program, MIDNIGHT IN THE DESERT. Bell said,

Midnight in the Desert

Here is what I can tell you, Keith and I are going to think about this over this Weekend but it looks like instead of making a deal with anybody else we will do it ourselves. We will be on the Internet and everybody will be able to hear the show on Tune In (free app) Worldwide.

If we decide to move forward I will be ordering the gear by Tuesday. The music is taken care of and the time of the show will be 9PM-12AM PT M-F.

The live show will be free, but because we are doing it ourselves we will be depending on people buying membership for 5 bucks a Month which gives you the Podcast and Wormhole and so forth. If they don't we won't get very far because we pay music, Bandwidth, Producer Etc.

We could have signed with a Partner BUT they wanted to put us in a pay wall with other stuff and the price would have been at least double with all kinds of restrictions so we think we will put up the money ourselves and roll the dice. It's a gamble but so is life.

Art

The gamble..

Keith Rowland and Art Bell will undoubtedly have a tough choice on their hands this weekend. Art Bell said on BELLGAB that Rowland doesn't have much money for the game. Bell himself even said he wanted to try to save the money has put away for his family, and at the same time hinted about how expensive it will be to buy equipment to broadcast himself and how much money it was going to take to be able to play bumper music.

Five dollars a month will help him.

But will it be enough.

There are two schools of thought in my own head on the return of Art Bell to radio. On one hand, I want him back. I am a little dismayed by most of the 'paranormal' talk that is out there--those who fall victim to believing everything or others who simply pretend to understand the paranormal as a means of pretending to be the next Art. And with a return to the radio, there's a good chance that real talk will return. Questions that matter, speculation based on common sense, a fun spirit of tin-foil-hat wearing paranoia without being too paranoid. And truthseeking with critical thinking instead of gullibility.

On the other hand.. if a failure occurs, and yet another quick retirement happens, the Art Bell stock will be utterly washed up. Gone. Finished. And a mighty career and industry-changing life will be forced into the background without respect.

I am biased. As  fan, I hope scenario two never happens. I certainly don't think it will, but say it only for the purposes of possibility.

The podcasting world is saturated.

I have a very tough time keeping up with message boards and blogs that I love. I have an equally difficult time, as of late, finding the time to write as much as I crave doing so. But the podasting world? With a blog or website, you can quickly skim for the best parts. You can see the bold type and read, quickly, what may matter more than the rest of the verbiage. But with podcasting, you can't really do such things.. it's much tougher to find a batch of podcasts you really love and find the time to actually listen to them all.

And that is why Art Bell has to be good.

He will be successful, I predict, in gaining back the fans who have become weary with Coast to Coast AM. He may even build his audience a bit, based on the fact that so many newcomers to the Coast show have grown equally tired of cue-card questions and borderline stupidity displayed by George Noory. But will Art Bell be able to gather enough of the new generation to listen?

It's interesting to think that all of the things popular today, the ghost tales and stories of alien encounters, UFO sightings, and conspiracy, all have a bloodline dating back directly to Art Bell. And few in the new generation of social media or internet broadcasting have a clue as to how their world and subject matter popularity was based off of the hard work of someone who went against the grain in a time when 'paranormal' was marginalized and mocked.

In that sense, Art Bell deserves the respect of the people who buy into the ideas he promoted.

But we know that what should happen doesn't always occur.

I will not be making any predictions on whether there will be success found on MIDNIGHT IN THE DESERT. Of course, I will be working 5 bucks a month into my budget. Heck, if I subscribed (for three months) to Sirius, 5 bucks is a bargain.

Art Bell will need a lot of people like me, however.

Time will tell to see if he gets them.

Water wars coming. The next crime wave is predicted

I recall a documentary I saw back in the late 1990s, it was some sort of bad TV special--bad in acting and producing--that predicted what the next fifty or so years of life may be like. Some talked about Nostrodamus, others just predicted based off of scientific research. One particular thing stuck in my mind: The possibility of 'waters wars,' with shortages and droughts people would be forced to fight and become adversaries just for a drop of liquid.

I kept that fearful tale in the back of my mind for years.

Today, I read this headline and the fear came racing back.

Dateline, KQED Science section, an article written by Sasha Khokha:

THE NEXT CRIME WAVE IN FARM COUNTRY: STEALING WATER.

 

The story comes from the drought scourged California landscape, where water is no where and there's hardly a drop to drink, or use for farming. Underground aqueducts are quickly becoming clay. It's getting tense, with Governor Brown announcing tough restrictions on the use of water.

Meanwhile, golf courses remain green, as do the luxurious yards of the rich and famous. But that's a whole other story.

The article linked weaves a troubling tale of what the near future could look like. A maybe those 'water wars' fears from that unnamed 1990s special could actually occur.

From the story, the more important text:

“They’re taking the water hoses, taking the copper wiring,” says the county’s District Attorney, David Linn. “We’ve even had instances where they’ve come in and stolen the water pumps from the farmers.”

Linn has recently launched a new task force so rural residents and farmers can reach a deputy district attorney 24-7 to report crime, including illegal well drilling.

Linn says a hypothetical call might be, “You know over the past two weeks, the water flow on my kitchen sink has continued to decrease. I notice there’s a couple of big drill rigs across the road, looks like they’re very active.”

An investigator could come out and talk with the well driller to make sure they’re drilling where they should be.

“We want to stop the wholesale planned attempt by water drillers to essentially tap out entire neighborhoods of homes without proper legal authority,” says Linn.

If water is siphoned out of a storage tank, or a water pump goes missing, the DA’s office could dispatch investigators to the scene to collect evidence for prosecution.

Under last year’s landmark groundwater law, local officials will be taking on the primary responsibility for managing groundwater and enforcing new rules.

The Madera County Task Force also plans to educate farmers about the best kinds of fences and tank enclosures to keep out water thieves.

Imagine: Water delivery trucks will be threatened. Fire hydrants will be targets.. People will be dying--if things get really, really bad, for just one more taste of life-continuing liquid. Just one more drop of the once abundant resource that we all need to sustain life..

All of these hypothetical fears are, frighteningly, quickly become more than hypotheticals. They are becoming likely possibilities.

I recall that scene from the TWILIGHT ZONE episode the Midnight Sun, where water was scarce and the earth was moving towards the sun--before a sudden change in course and it was hurled away. But during peak hot times, the program illustrated the desperate need that law abiding people would have and how they may resort to things that, under fair circumstances, they'd never consider. And that, in the end, is what is tough for us to consider: The prospect of people doing desperate things with the scarce resource of water drying up across the populous state.

I think the entire country is hoping for rain.

But forecasters aren't giving much hope lately.