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.

The 'ring'

THE ‘RING’ IN REAL LIFE: WHAT WAS THIS HOVERING OBJECT!?

This may be a video you have to see to believe.. Various sources on the planet earth reporting about a strange black ring that descended from the sky over Kazakhstan .. And then vanished.

According to the reports, people who saw the objected were mystified and rattled in fear..

The video has been seen countless times on YOUTUBE, with commentators suggesting a hoax may have been pulled or an artificial mechanism was used to create the smoke-like UFO…thing.

While I am intrigued by UFOs and want to find evidence I can believe in, I am not endorsing this video as anything except.. explainable..

And a video from APRIL 2014–just one year ago–can explain it..

At that time–AGAIN, one year ago this month–a weird black ring was spotted over a town in England, Warwickshire.. But video evidence shows a very natural way to create such a smoky mystery.. Watch:

While we don’t know exactly what created the RING over Kazakhstan, I’d put my money on a very similar source as the one featured in the “UFO” video from April 2014..

THE SCREAM QUEEN WE DESERVE IN 2015

Aly Semigran in BUSTLE writes a good article on the cultural meaning of the horror film IT FOLLOWS and how Maika Monroe is a ‘feminist scream queen icon we deserve in 2015′ 

This new article is just a continuation of mainstream and alternative sources giving this movie some of the best ratings and best press that any horror movie has received since HALLOWEEN in the 1970s or SILENCE OF THE LAMBS at the end of the 20th century..

It’s amazing to see so many different publications giving both street cred and real cred to a horror film–a genre normally avoided with ten foot poles by most reviewers and news agencies.

This movie has cut across cultural boundaries and has redefined what may be scary–along with it giving people commentary on teen sex and the economic collapse in Detroit..

2014 reviews of BABADOOK were kind. But the IT FOLLOWS reviews were overly generous regardless of the site or source writing them..

And it’s translating to an ever-expanding amount of theaters and change in the dynamics for horror itself..

EASTER HELL

After al Shabaab gunmen massacred nearly 150 people at a Kenyan university on Thursday, singling out Christians for point-blank executions, churches in Kenya are turning to armed guards to protect their Easter Sunday congregations »

(Image source) 

Christians who make up 83 percent of the population of 44 million in Kenya.. This Easter Sunday they are horrified to have to worship surrounded by signs of warfare.. modern hate.. the emergence of violence in their nation stunned their souls.

Shabab threatened to make Kenyan cities turn red with blood.. The attack on the school last week was a victory for terror.. Easter Sunday armed guards is a continuation of that win.

Edith Honan with REUTERS reports:

Kenya has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in four crime-ridden counties along its porous 700km border with Somalia, while helicopters were deployed along its palm-fringed coastal region popular with Western tourists.

Robert Kitur, the coastal region police chief, told Reuters extra uniformed and plain-clothes police officers have been deployed in the area, where Islamists have carried out attacks in the past.

"It is a delicate period but we have put the best possible surveillance," he said. "What happened in Garissa must never be seen in Mombasa or anywhere else in the region and country."

The al Qaeda-aligned al Shabaab said the Garissa assault was punishment to Kenya for sending troops into Somalia to fight the group alongside other African Union peacekeepers.

Late on Saturday, 613 students and 50 staff from Garissa University College arrived by bus in Nairobi, where they were welcomed by sobbing parents and relatives. Parents of missing children were at the city’s mortuary, trying to identify the dead.

It was the most deadly attack on Kenyan soil since al Qaeda in 1998 bombed the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, killing more than 200 people and wounding thousands of others. 

The attack has put further strain on the historically cordial relations between Kenya’s Christian and Muslim communities, which have deteriorated in recent years due to frequent Islamist attacks on Christian priests and churches.

X X X X

 

THE EASTER VIGIL, 2015

It is seeking a deeper meaning, an answer, and not an easy one, to the questions which challenge our faith, our fidelity and our very existence

We need … the humility not to take ourselves so seriously, recognizing who we really are: Creatures with strengths and weaknesses, sinners in need of forgiveness

To enter into the mystery means going beyond our own comfort zone, beyond the laziness and indifference which hold us back, and going out in search of truth, beauty and love

POPE FRANCIS, EASTER 2015

A tale of two lawns

 

ADAM NAGOURNEY, JACK HEALY and NELSON D. SCHWARTZ  all write in the NEW YORK TIMES that the California dream may be over..  Not with a bang. But a dought..

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE..

I think for me the most striking of images: The green grass around homes and golf courses, juxtaposed to dry land directly next to it.

Meanwhile, some welcome rain is coming to CALI and residents are urged to save the rainwater. It will not be enough to end the drought.. Over 90% of the state is in a severe drought. The clock is ticking on the return of the dry season to the west..

NOT SO STELLAR

After so many plans to go to the theater, and then REDBOX the movie Interstellar, I finally had the opportunity do watch it last night. My verdict isn’t so kind.. I actually didn’t like it nearly as much as I 1) expected to and 2) wanted to. There are some amazing parts, don’t get me wrong. The idea of time travel and inter dimensional communication fascinates me and, quite honestly, may be possible.. CERN could tell us that soon. But as a movie, it missed a few marks I wanted it to hit. I cheered for it.. I supported it.. But in the end, I felt let down by a somewhat empty string of dialogue and some forced emotions that didn’t seem natural with the actors involved.

I won’t spoil anything .. There’s a slight chance that at least one or two people have yet to view the film..

I give the movie a 4 out of 10. Sorry.

But I do give Anne Hathaway’s haircut a 9 out of 10, though she looked a little like a young Leonard Nimoy, and I’ll kindly rate Matthew McConaughey’s new face a 10. Except his eyebrows, which at times looked glued on.

Maybe that’s what inter dimensional space travel does to a face and a hairstyle.

ART BELL: WE HAVE A CONTRACT...but...

For weeks, Art Bell has been telling fans on BELLGAB that a contract to return to the air was forthcoming. Today he posted a brief sort-of announcement on site here:

Ok, we have a contract but as expected there are some things in there that require some re-wording and one item that would be a deal breaker if left as is. We also have possibly another way to go if
need be.

Because we are at a sensitive part of all this you may not hear from me till we come to some conclusion on Monday or we hope no later then Tuesday (my estimates)

I did have a email exchange with Dave which he started and which will reamain private, even the exchange itself should have remained private, oh well.

Art

Bell's comment referring to 'Dave' is about a George Noory hosted open lines Coast to Coast AM last night. A caller asked if Bell was returning to Coast, Noory responded no, but elaborated that an email exchange, or several of them, has recently taken place between the two hosts. Noory wouldn't say anything else regarding the conversation, but the buzz of it lit up the BELLGAB exchange today. Bell seemingly thinks the conversation between them should have stayed private--even the fact they had one.

The HORROR REPORT will follow this story as it develops and relay any pertinent information as it becomes available..

DEVELOPING..

THE RISE OF THE BLOOD MOON

Iran deals..

Nuke threats..
Russian advances..
Blood moon Easter weekends..

This is the big moment–the time many prophecy speakers and doomsayers have warned us about. The rise of the blood moon takes place Friday night and Saturday morning and Easter weekend begins..

Many say that blood moons make for dangerous times..
And this blood moon this day will also be eclipsed..

The best view: The western third of the U.S. will get to see a total eclipse, while people in the central and eastern U.S. will only see a partial eclipse before the moon sets as daylight takes over..

The next blood moon comes in September..

Between now and then we will see how bad things get.
Or .. same as they ever were.

PASTA POWER POPE: FATTY FATCIS TOLD TO LAY OFF THE CARBS

The Pope’s expansive popularity has led to an expanding waistline.. Perhaps all of the free pizza deliveries to the Pope mobile.. Maybe some hardcore heavy pasta dinners have drained the Pontiff of the svelte appearance he when he first became the leader of the Catholic flock..

The AFP is one of the sources behind this breaking news story.. Angus MacKinnon, a reporter with the agency, filed his heavy-hitting dispatch on the Francis weight gain: 

Pizza-loving Pope Francis has been told to cut down and exercise more, reports said Thursday as the pontiff made the latest in a string of allusions to feeling weary.

 The 78-year-old pontiff is visibly chubbier these days than he was when he lived in Argentina and was known for a frugal lifestyle and walking as much as he could.

Since being elected he has made several enigmatic remarks suggesting he does not expect to be pope for longer than a few years, triggering speculation about possible health issues.

The latest came in a pre-Easter mass on Thursday, when he talked about the physically and emotionally exhausting nature of the work of a parish priest.

The Pope has a slight limp that got worse.. heavy food has led him to feel more tired. His high fat and high carb diet has led him to have a much more robust waist when seen in public.. Undoubtedly the frock has been frilled and had to be enlarged a bit over the past year..

Pope Fat-cis has been a nickname bantered about since this story broke..
People must want a thin pope..

I for one am perfectly fine with a Pope who lives his life enjoying food–carby food, too..

But he better watch out or the seat in the Pope Mobile will have to be expanded.. Airlines will start charging him for two people.. And his vestments will be stretched as his body gets bigger.

He’s bigger than life already. He may as well just be bigger.

This weekend: Easter. And ham. Lots of ham.

QUAINT LITTLE PLACES.. DEGENERATING EVERY DAY

There is a troubling trend in the United States–the trend of a degenerating infrastructure and disinterest from anyone trying to fix it..

I am amazed looking at historical photos.. those “old days” and times gone by are often littered with symbols of class and money–trains running on time and people dressed well at storefronts that were occupying buildings in small town America. Fast forward to today: Ruins.. Artifacts still remain. Reminders that old style transportation once existed ..  Empty stores, falling down most of the time, becoming just dust and rubble as time goes on.

This is the new America..
A time when nothing is being built.. nothing is being celebrated..

Roads and street corners are becoming ghastly..
Potholes are nothing compared to the once mighty structures separating apart and becoming death traps for anyone who tries to visit..

The new America is watching the old America die. But we aren’t do anything to create the future. Instead most towns and small rural areas are just hopeless and sad, grungy and gritty.. Joblessness is furthered by the end of many traditional career choices for those without college or connections..

We are rapidly falling behind the world..
For many hopeless hamlets, there’s no turning around now.

The April fools abound

The April Fool’s Joke needs to stop

I am happy April fool’s day is almost. Since childhood, I hated the day. The fake humor.. the not so clever jokes.. the phony nonsense that people think is laughable but instead it just an annoyance..

But recently, really with the internet, I avoid news in general on April fools. Because everyone wants to get into this act of outdoing each other.. real news agencies report false stories, for fun.. Real outlets of information think they are being more clever than the next guy..

Instead, things like this can happen: Shareholders can get very angry.

I love humor. When it’s funny.
I like jokes, when they are meaningful..
I really like comedy. When it is done right.

The people who don’t do it right are the ones who incessantly try to do it on April Fools.. a day that just should go away for good.

And that is why I love the sarcastic humor of this video:

Don't Hug Me 4 out

 

It's a little clunky compared to the previous videos.. a little sloppier. But the style and message stays the same: Mental anarchy ensues.. This time, the message is about the dangers of the internet's virtual world destroying our lives..

Enjoy..

https://youtu.be/G9FGgwCQ22w

Thumbing through Megan Fox's new interview

Megan Fox releases the thumbs!!
She knows you don’t think she’s smart.. But there’s lot of reasons she doesn’t really care..

From her BAZAAR interview, snippets worth thumbing through:

I would say most people assume that I’m not very smart or educated or earnest, because I have this image that I’m sort of narcissistic, chasing attention, and wanting people to like me,” she says. “It makes me laugh because I’ve done plenty of interviews and when you read the article from beginning to end you can see that I’m not your typical music video model.

And this

In Transformers I was a kid, I had no idea what I was doing. There was nothing for me to do [in that movie], but then I did nothing and that was my own call. 

On the charge she was eye candy in TRANSFORMERS:

I don’t take it personally because in some ways I acknowledge and agree. But at the same time, both established comedians and Quentin Tarantino have come up to me and said, ‘I really liked Jennifer’s Body, you were really good in that.’ The people whose opinions matter liked it, so I’m okay with that.

THE EASTER SKIES

Blood Moon With Total Lunar Eclipse & Eerie Biblical Message Rising Over U.S. Easter Weekend »

Some Christians believe the blood moon lunar eclipse tetrad could be connected to Jesus’ return — or signify a world-changing event about to take place.
According to the King James Bible, “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord comes,” (Joel 2:31).

The end of the world..
Armageddon..
There has been lots of end times before, so I’m not going to pack my bags yet. I think we’ll be here for a while.
But that’s not saying things won’t stay scary.

TERRI SHIAVO TEN YEARS LATER

As wretched a this image is, it’s the artistic representation of what Terri Shiavo looked like as she lived her final moments on earth, deprived of food and water by a judge’s orders 10 years ago.

This is how we looked ten years ago as she left the planet:



This is a delicate subject.. and still as divisive today as it was then. My position then and today was that her death was wrong..and that the only person who benefited from it was her ex-husband. I still believe I am right.. I also understand the vast amount of people who think differently than me. But regardless of what anyone thinks, the description (graphic, beware) of her final hours needs to be documented for history books. Lawyers at that time were not completely honest about her “beautiful” death ..

Her brother, Bobby Schindler, wrote:

And yet, Schiavo’s attorney falsely told the public during a press conference, just days before Terri’s death, that she looked “beautiful”. This is what they want you to believe, not the harsh truth about the madness of what we permit in the rooms of hospitals, nursing homes and hospices every single day across this country.
These are the hard facts my family and I will have to live with for the rest of my life: After almost two weeks without food or water, my sister’s lips were horribly cracked, to the point where they were blistering. Her skin became jaundice with areas that turned different shades of blue. Her skin became markedly dehydrated from the lack of water. Terri’s breathing became rapid and uncontrollable, as if she was outside sprinting. Her moaning, at times, was raucous, which indicated to us the insufferable pain she was experiencing. Terri’s face became skeletal, with blood pooling in her deeply sunken eyes and her teeth protruding forward. Even as I write this, I can never properly describe the nightmare of having to watch my sister have to die this way.
What will be forever seared in my memory is the look of utter horror on my sister’s face when my family visited her just after she died.

The full article is here..

I believed in 2005 that this was not a case of a ‘right to die’ patient despite that current thought that it was.... Instead I believed there to be ulterior motives to the man who was requesting her death. It may be unfair to be a judge of character .. and I know this post may find some people who disagree with me. Fair enough.

But fair game: The truth about her final moments on the planet.. During a full moon in Florida, March 31, 2005.

A GERMANWINGS THING: THE MISSING FLIGHT DATA RECORDER CARD AND THE AX MAN OF FLIGHT 9525

LET’S START WITH THIS STORY: GERMANWINGS CO-PILOT HAD DREAMS ABOUT PLANE CRASHING, REPORT SAYS »

The co-pilot Andreas Lubitz who steered an airline with 150 people on board into a French mountainside had been dumped by his girlfriend the day prior to the crash and was undergoing treatment for depression from a doctor, according to reports Saturday.

But we are just finding out so much about Lubitz so quickly, aren’t we?  The problem I have with all of these stories is that unnamed people are being quoted and we are not finding the true source of the information. Where does it come from? Family? Friends? The EX?  I am not trying to cast too big a shadow of doubt—I believe in conspiracy but also know that not everything is one, so i am trying to be cautious but sensible.  But here is a quote from the FOX NEWS story that gets me into the caution zone:

The New York Post reported that the German newspaper Bild quoted an ex-girlfriend saying that Lubitz “would wake up in the middle of the night screaming, “We’re crashing!”
“When I heard about the crash, one thing that he said kept going through my head: ‘One day I’m going to do something that will change the whole system, and everyone will know my name and remember it.’ ” the woman told the paper, according to the Post.
“I didn’t know what he meant, but now it makes sense,” the woman added.
The Post also reported that French TV channel iTELE reported Lubitz and another girlfriend of seven years shared an apartment in Dusseldorf and planned to get married next year. However, the channel had said Lubtiz’s fiancée ended the relationship the day before the crash.

So how convenient. Suddenly when a big crime is committed, we are told by this EX that she broke up with him a day prior.. And we also have been told as a child he loved this area of the ALPS. And we also know that he was DREAMING about crashing a plane now.. All of this added up together sure sounds like the perfect story book beginning and ending …

I think this girlfriend story is a little sketchy. Don’t get me wrong, again, I am not trying to create rumors where there are none.. but I would think investigators should be asking more about this EX.. asking why the breakup happened. If it did. Asking more about those dreams. If they did..

And if someone is speaking about ‘doing something everyone will remember,’ or something of the like, the partner usually queries a lot more about that than this girlfriend apparently did.

And now pilots are going to have to sign away their medical information on a regular basis to a corporation to ensure something of this nature will never happen again.. I guess Andreas Lubitz will be remembered for that…

….but I keep pondering the ‘we’re crashing!!’ dreams, and they are peculiar.  I have reservations about buying into the storyline at this point—at least as it is being presented by the supposed ex-girlfriend of 24 hours.

And let me ask something more.. in our information age where everyone tweets and tumbles and Facebooks into the night, where is the social media presence of Lubitz? Or this girlfriend?

x x x 

I am not offering up any theories of my own, I am simply adding a mixture of doubt and logic to this whole thing..

From a distance, we have a perfect story.  A mentally unstable pilot breaks up with his girlfriend a day before—the same girlfriend who now says he had dreams about planes crashing. Then he locks out his fellow pilot and he crashes a plane, murdering 150 people, into a location in the Alps he supposedly enjoyed visiting as a child.

There is no letter, though. No motive. But we do have a great set of audio files of people screaming and a pilot using an ax, we are told, to chop away at the door while screaming “My God” … The crash takes 8 minutes. Scratch that. Eighteen. Wait. No. Seven. . Well, pick your own on that.

It glides into the hell on earth, leaving behind a dead metal cylinder of humanity. A tragic story. But we have a villain.. An evil pilot who was hellbent on killing all the innocent souls that day.

This flight recording from the moment of impact is the latest bit that has me a little perplexed.. We seem to know the full extent of the horror that day.  AGerman newspaper BILD is releasing a transcript of the ‘recording’ though admitting the recording hasn’t been released and they haven’t heard it.  Andreas Lubitz, though, is busy crashing the plane while co-pilot Patrick Sondenheimer, now relieved from his bathroom trip, is busy trying to crash through the door.

This is the flight audio recording, we are told, that finishes this story and gives us the inside view of what occurred.

There is another piece of the puzzle, however, missing. And it’s a big piece that provides the scientific and industrial evidence as to how the plane crashed: The flight DATA recorder was found. But it was missing a memory card. AS The AP reported last week:

Confusion surrounded the fate of the second black box. French President Francois Hollande said the casing of the flight data recorder had been found in the scattered debris, but was missing the memory card that captures 25 hours’ worth of information on the position and condition of almost every major part in a plane. Jouty refused to confirm the discovery.

Confusion, indeed.

A few days later, an aviation website reported this:

The BEA has yet to hold a follow-up briefing on the investigation and it fell to the European Cockpit Association to remind the world that investigators have yet to find the aircraft’s flight data recorder, analysis of which could prove vital to confirming the facts.

Was the memory card taken? How was it missing? We haven’t gotten much more word on this.. Instead we have seen the public trial and verdict on the pilot..

I am not arguing that he did not do it. I am not saying he is an innocent patsy.. I am not pretending that people didn’t die.. I am not attempting to begin a conspiracy theory. I am adding a little bit of cold water to a burning hot public feeding frenzy.. that is it.

And I will also add this:

If a pilot was going to intentionally crash a plane, there are two things that don’t make sense. 1) He would have had to crashed the plane while being alone.. the notion that he was alone only occurred since the co-pilot had to urinate. Are we to believe that if both pilots would have stayed put that day, this crash would not have happened? And 2) If a suicidal pilot was going to crash a plane, would have truly have done it by doing a steady descent into the alps for over ten minutes? Or wouldn’t he have just ..well..crashed the plane?

To me, these are perplexing questions that, in the heat of the moment, few are asking and none are addressing.

Instead, we have the tale of Germanwings Flight 9525.

History.

Dreams and unnamed sources: The 'EX' files on Lubitz

Germanwings co-pilot had dreams about plane crashing, report says »

The co-pilot Andreas Lubitz who steered an airline with 150 people on board into a French mountainside had been dumped by his girlfriend the day prior to the crash and was undergoing treatment for depression from a doctor, according to reports Saturday.

But we are just finding out so much about Lubitz so quickly, aren’t we?  The problem I have with all of these stories is that unnamed people are being quoted and we are not finding the true source of the information. Where does it come from? Family? Friends? The EX?  I am not trying to cast too big a shadow of doubt—I believe in conspiracy but also know that not everything is one, so i am trying to be cautious but sensible.  But here is a quote from the FOX NEWS story that gets me into the caution zone:

The New York Post reported that the German newspaper Bild quoted an ex-girlfriend saying that Lubitz “would wake up in the middle of the night screaming, “We’re crashing!”
“When I heard about the crash, one thing that he said kept going through my head: ‘One day I’m going to do something that will change the whole system, and everyone will know my name and remember it.’ ” the woman told the paper, according to the Post.
“I didn’t know what he meant, but now it makes sense,” the woman added.
The Post also reported that French TV channel iTELE reported Lubitz and another girlfriend of seven years shared an apartment in Dusseldorf and planned to get married next year. However, the channel had said Lubtiz’s fiancée ended the relationship the day before the crash.

So how convenient. Suddenly when a big crime is committed, we are told by this EX that she broke up with him a day prior.. And we also have been told as a child he loved this area of the ALPS. And we also know that he was DREAMING about crashing a plane now.. All of this added up together sure sounds like the perfect story book beginning and ending …

I think this girlfriend story is a little sketchy. Don’t get me wrong, again, I am not trying to create rumors where there are none.. but I would think investigators should be asking more about this EX.. asking why the breakup happened. If it did. Asking more about those dreams. If they did..

And if someone is speaking about ‘doing something everyone will remember,’ or something of the like, the partner usually queries a lot more about that than this girlfriend apparently did.

And now pilots are going to have to sign away their medical information on a regular basis to a corporation to ensure something of this nature will never happen again.. I guess Andreas Lubitz will be remembered for that…

….but I keep pondering the ‘we’re crashing!!’ dreams, and they are peculiar.  I have reservations about buying into the storyline at this point—at least as it is being presented by the supposed ex-girlfriend of 24 hours.

And let me ask something more.. in our information age where everyone tweets and tumbles and Facebooks into the night, where is the social media presence of Lubitz? Or this girlfriend?

SCARY STORIES TO BAN IN THE DARK

Given history, I suppose it’s amazing I even got the chance to read SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK when I was a kid in the 90s. I was doing more reading on the upcoming documentary being made on this and learned something I never quite knew previously: This was among the most banned book of the 1990s..

Cody Meireck describes it best, 

The interesting thing that I have been encountering as I begin to talk about this documentary is the question of how I can “bill” the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series. It is listed as the most banned book between 1990-1999 and remained at #7 in 2000-2009. It was #1 on the list for several years in the 1990s. In the 21st Century there are a number of other books that have taken the mantel for most frequently banned… Harry Potter is often up there, and recently the bookAnd Tango Makes Three is often high on the list because of the presence of a homosexual couple (animals though they may be). So although Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is no longer top on the list, for the last 25 years that the American Library Association has been compiling a list, it has been a major title on the list. The original books are over 20 years old at this point, and yet they still show up on the lists amongst more widespread and known books such as Harry Potter and Huckleberry Finn. That says something.

I remember the moment I got my first SCARY STORIES book.. it was during grade school when a book fair truck came and set up in the school gym.. I found this black book with a skull on it and somehow was attracted to the concept and stories.. It became a treasure for me and then, with each new one, I would buy them up for the collection.

The most amazing part, given history of book bans, is that I bought my SCARY STORIES book at a Catholic school book fair!  The same Catholic school that suspended me for a day for bringing a fake Freddy Kreuger glove to class in fourth grade for our field trip..

I suppose the school’s nuns couldn’t be aware of every book that was sold. And even more, I ponder if the book seller was secretly trying to fight the pop culture movement at the time to hide these books from kids.

If it wasn’t for the SCARY STORIES books, my appreciation of the paranormal and even love of drawing perhaps would never have blossomed. I bet there’s a lot of 90s kids in the same boat as me because of this series..

THE CREEPY CLOSET AT 3AM

Let me first explain what this is.. Late at night, if you’re perched at the right place in my bathroom, this is a view directly into my bedroom.. There is a piece of blanket stuffed into the closet which pokes out. Quite frankly, perhaps my laziness has equaled this, it has been there for a long time.. Too long. As a matter of fact, each night at 3am when either nature calls or some other noise of the house startles me awake, I make my way to the bathroom and see this blanket.. The more I stare, though, the less it is looks like a blanket.



See, this blanket has been scared me for months. With the darkness of night shrouding the room and just the faint glow from a nearby night light, this little piece of blanket starts it morphing. It looks at first like a witch, sort of staring at me.. If you look long enough, it begins to change into a smiling old hag, almost with a knowing cackle on her face as she sees me have a heart begin to race.. A few times it turned into a man, posing as though he was taking his final photo of life. There was a time when it appeared to be a wolf.. Another time it was simply a blank figure but yet somehow had eyes that were staring at me, almost winking with each second I gawked back..

Sure, I know this is all a figment of the wild night time imagination–when your reality suspends for a little as you take walks between the here and the dream world there.

But each time this is so realistic that I need to check this blanket prior to attempting to regain the sleep world. Regardless of my knowledge, my distinct knowledge, that this is a blanket, my deep fear of the shapes it poses as forces me into a nightly check.

I maintain sanity, let me explain.
I maintain reality..
But in the dangerously dark night air, the shapes that objects take can piece your imagination and scare you to the bone.