Did you ever listen to the episode of Coast to Coast where a distraught man called in and claimed to have worked at Area 51? He said that what we thought of as interplanetary beings were actually interdimensional, and that his location was being triangulated, then the entire show cut off. Good stuff.
Its because he is the real deal. He has nothing to gain from lying, except harassment from the government. The IRS raided his house years ago. He was paid up on his taxes. The story of his coworker taking a plasma torch to some anti-gravity device, and blowing himself up. Nuts.
That and I watched an entire video of a body language expert break him down and the guy came up empty when looking for slip-ups even in body language. The fact that Lazar is telling the truth is absolutely terrifying. Even when Lazar talks about how the Government hired him because he was a highly unqualified mechanical engineer sounds EXACTLY like something the US government would do. Lazar said "I race cars in the desert! What the fuck am I doing looking this thing!?? Im totally not qualified to be here!" lol Yep. Hes telling the truth.
Of course they would hire a hot shot self made engineer! Bob is a badass. He is just not the type to make things up. His life has been awesome. He has no need to. He's super matter of fact, and completely unexcited when he speaks on these things.
When you play live music, there is a lonely old man in every bar that claims to be a scout for Americas Got Talent, or they know Greg Allman, or some producer is their cousin, or they used to be Kenny Roger's tour manager. I tell them Im not interested, but they keep talking anyway. These old men never learned that lying doesnt help them make friends, it has the opposite effect. Just trying to paint the picture that I know the type. Bob Lazar is not a bullshitter.
I remember seeing him on TV when I was a kid, and Im glad he is getting the attention he deserves. Also glad that the government released those documents, and are leaving him alone. Did you listen to the youtube link of the Area 51 caller I posted toward the top of the thread for Chuck?
Also: Im going to post my email at the top of the next thread and ask everyone to email me so I can start a discord for all the students here. This comment thread system is wonky, and Id like to get a tight little community going centered on writing if we can.
I listened to an interview with Bob Lazar. I want to believe in aliens, and I do think that there has to be other life in the universe. But I did not find Lazar's 'proofs' to be very compelling. For example, he 'predicted' element 115 long before it could be created by scientists in a lab, but there are many gaps in the periodic table of elements. All one has to do is pick a number from one of the gaps, and sometime in the future scientists will 'discover' that element in the lab. For me to believe that element 115 could power a craft of some sort through the manipulation of gravity as Lazar claims, the element would have to be shown in the labs of the scientists who created it to have some sort of properties other than simple existence.
It would be totally cool if it was true. And hopefully one day when we do find the aliens, they will be benevolent and not like the ones from any of those many alien invasion movies.
Exhaustion sets in after another day of elation and overexcitement... So glad I didn't (p)regift that Pixie Project bookmark...resplendent with our wedding colours...mirroring the once-in-a-lifetime purchase of my Milan-made winter coat (definitely worth it btw!)...validating my life choice to make purple my hallmark.. and you didn't even know it was going to me.
Bravo! That gesture is absolutely going to create positive ripples across the universe.
Plus I'm not going blind!! (passed my vision test with flying colours for the first time in a good decade).
You'll understand my pun machine being in stunned mode.
Thanks for the tall (?) tale. ;)
Glad you had a less eventful flight than in Survivor
That is a question that will forever remain unanswered (unless another "alien" finagles one of those gifts)...I invited my benefactor to keep what she wanted (e.g. the candy, the letter in her name) and she said it would be easier to just send the unadorned (but pretty nonetheless) box in a packing envelope. I did see the picture though.
Judging by packages I've ordered recently, I highly doubt all those beautiful bows and flowers would have made it intact. I didn't realize the box was so small and light! haha
The bookmark blows the necklace away as far as my tastes go. My "assonant" friend sent me a picture of the letter, so I have a version of it. She's a videographer so documented the whole unwrapping carefully.
We poor cousins of the Americans just have to be grateful that we're able to get the crumbs of the original masterpiece. ;) Definitely made my day! The jade mouse bears a pretty strong resemblance to a turtle (grin).
So how's Botswana? Did you do a reading there too?
I could go really deep with this but I'm terrified irritating Mr. Palahniuk. lololol So we'll just keep it light. I still need to send him my box. lol It's Krispy Kreme flavored.
Interesting. Reminds me of the Carrollton bus crash that led to all busses being required to have multiple emergency exits. There was a documentary about it on Amazon I watched ~4 years ago. Happened in the place where I grew up, and just returned to. Went to school with the daughter of the drunk driver who caused it.
Most nights out it used to be Worcester for me but now it’s Providence. A fucking lovely town, it has a lot more heart and personality. Plus there’s an actual gay community there. The old one in Worcester died some time back in the early 2000’s and now all that left is a dive called “The Malebox,” with nothing but old men waiting to pounce on unsuspecting teens and 20 something’s. If one could stand to ride a half hour south from old Woosta, there is brighter light with colorful drag queens and glory holes.
When I was a youngun, I was taught by an elder gay that if you didn't have a Damron's, check the yellow pages under 'taverns' or 'nightclubs' and if there were no obvious-sounding names, call the local police and ask them. I did that often- they'd sometimes giggle and pass the phone to a rookie, but they would tell me what gay bars were in town.
My how things have changed. When I was a youngin the better bar In Worcester, before it closed, was called A-men. Now they’re just called “The Fist Me,” or “The Boys Dad.”
Art Bell and endless discussion of contrails on Coast to Coast. Usually listened to on AM radio while driving somewhere on an empty highway at 2 in the morning. Looking back, given the time and the dark highways, I can imagine we were all a little more susceptible to the most outlandish of tales.
That show explores fantastic concepts and wonderful ideas but it's like the writers think "Oh shit! We have to tie this profound idea back to Aliens. Just write down that aliens did it!" I'd love to write for that show.
Yeah but we all need that once show that helps us fall asleep. That's just interesting enough. The one with the monotone narrator and a guarantee that no matter what episode it is it will still be the same episode.
I had no idea they still made episodes. I bought a season to eviscerate for a fallacies of logic paper in college years ago. My friends and I had a good laugh.
"In another minute we’ll be strangers once more. We will never again see each other. But part of me will always be sitting next to her, staring at the skyline of Manhattan and hearing her whisper."...Too good Mr Palahniuk. Just lovely.
LOL. Speaking of outrageous stories. My friend slipped me the most outrageous story to add to chapter two of my essay. Apparently feral cats have been breaking into body farms and eating the fresh human dead bodies laid out for study at the universities. LOLOL They stated "Cats showed preference for bodies in relatively early decomposition.” https://www.newsweek.com/feral-cat-eat-human-corpse-1482549 ...You're welcome. LOL
Now I want to go on the Rogan show to talk about THAT!! My dogs would just roll on the dead bodies and come home happy and proud -- that would make a good short story.
Speaking of the disembodied and cats, an interesting thing happened to me the other morning: my neighbor lady was out front of her house, a little perplexed and distraught. I offered some help and she said yes, as I walked over there was a cat, disembodied with its intestines strewn all over the lawn. Very neatly and the cat was still very much intact. (The body that is) . But yeah, intestines completely pulled out. I live in a relatively urban environment near downtown Phoenix. Some say it was a coyote? Any thoughts on what could have caused this ? I’ve ruled out another cat or cats. Thanks!
Buoy I had to work hard for that! haha I thought yaw were just reading all the other ones and would miss this "ace" haha
I'm learning the hard way to overpost at my own risk haha Maybe I should just delete the "warmup" posts. ;) (and keep posting "non sequiturs" on other threads whenever the mood hits).
Or just say "crew it" and give my creativity free reign haha
PS Africa is amazing (based on trips to Mali, Senegal and Kenya)
This is *my* favourite moment, especially in an age of really inconvenient travel.
See you at the Nolle Contendere tomorrow.
Re your 2nd reply (I'm a bad inlfuence, it seems haha)... Aisle take what I can get!
The tips of trees a silhouette in teals and navy blues. Fence posts made from thick old tree branches a blur as my Jeep dips into the cool valleys of the back roads. The road patches that snake the tar pressed roads begin to fade into darkness as the sun disappears under the horizon. Frogs and insects hum at each stop sign as I drive down the empty pavement.
This road my regular route home to Peculiar. A small town with a few stop lights and gas stations. Sometimes folks make comments about the town name. The local lore is that someone got tired of requesting names for the town that had already been selected. After multiple name submissions they finally asked to be given a peculiar town name, so they got what they asked for.
The headlights illuminate the fading striped lines and over grown grasses along the fence lines. Everything else is darkness. Suddenly the night sky lights up a strange shade of blue. Similar to the lighting of a lighting strike, but it lingers for a few seconds. Then the light recedes like a giant squeegee pulling it across the sky. Then darkness. I instinctively hit the brakes and hunker down in my seat a little. Peeking over the steering wheel I scan the night sky. Are we getting shelled by an attack? Was it a boulder burning through the atmosphere? There is no sound. No more lights. The gravel cracks under the tires as I start to head home once more.
I talk to my room mate about weird light that filled the entire night sky. They said their work mates saw it too in the town south of the area. Folks wondered if it was the military doing testing or UFOs. Maybe it was some big government experiment.
To this day, I still have no idea what lit up the sky that night out in the middle of no where. Never seen anything like it since. About a decade later, while watching Elon's space trash lighting up the night sky, I saw a video with a large meteor landing that did something similar to the night sky, so maybe it was a big space rock making its final landing after a long journey through space?
Do you think that anyone in a creative pursuit has to believe in magic on some level? Could someone who participates in absolutely no sort of magical thinking be a good musician, writer, or painter?
Magical Thinking by Augusten Burroughs is good stuff, and my life has been vastly improved by entertaining the idea that magic exists the past couple years.
In reality, I am like a Vulcan and don't believe in anything I can't see or can be measured by some scientific instrument, and I participate in all the artistic pursuits: art, music, writing, etc.
In my imagination, I am all for sci-fi, fantasy, magic, and other impossible things. This definitely feeds into my creative flo states and TTRPG game design.
I think creative people come in many shapes and sizes. We all have our own path to the same river.
Im a very critical/skeptical person, and magic can also be things that we cant measure or explain... yet. Ive had too many scary instances of intuition to write off anything I cant explain.
Magical thinking, or superstitious thinking is deeply tied to our learning instinct as part of the animal kingdom. It gave birth to idols, cults and religions but, you might be right aswell to question if it feeds an artist's creativity and work.
I believe it to be a very beneficial thing as long as it is managed, balanced. I have a head full of doubt about everything, and groupthink is terrifying, so I dont get into any extreme versions.
This story brings back memories of the time I was stranded at Belgrade airport in December 1992.
The Bosnian War was in full swing and the airport was completely dark and empty except for about a dozen passengers heading to various European destinations.
My only source of entertainment during my wait was a television that played "Take On Me" by Norwegian synth-pop band A-ha on an endless loop and my only source of sustenance was a duty free bottle of Absolute vodka I had bought with me from Australia.
As I waited for the next flight to Athens the airport slowly emptied and I found myself completely alone in the airport and half drunk.
Just before midnight the Olympic airlines plane arrived and before I boarded I was joined by a middle aged man dressed completely in black.
A huge round gold medallion shaped like sun hung on a thick gold chain over his black turtle neck and he also wore a quarter length black leather coat.
We arrived in Athens around 2:00 am and reached Greek customs together.
As I opened my luggage for inspection, the man in black produced a burgundy passport and I heard the customs officers discuss his diplomatic status and they waved him through without checking his briefcase.
Moments later I was standing at the taxi rank and I saw him standing next to a black Mercedes, as he was getting in he turned to me and smiled with sharp gold canines.
I spent a lot of time around tattoo shops in the 90s. You would be surprised by how common it was to see people who had their dentist implant them with vampire teeth. Anne Rice seemed to have a big impact on young men during that time period.
I was just listening to George Noory's Coast to Coast the other night around 2am because Steve Shippy was on to talk about a recent paranormal documentary about Danny Rollings. One enthusiastic man from the East Coast called in and he was convinced that bisexuality was the key to becoming in tune with the spirit world. He was 100% sure it was the only way to fully experience the paranormal and that it aided in communicating with ghosts. I want two of whatever he was on :)
Also I am never canceling that subscription, Coast to Coast is exactly what I've been missing since Weekly World News left store shelves.
Too spooky. During my childhood you didn't want to be a cow in a pasture in Montana, not unless you wanted to get radical surgery at night from aliens.
As a child, I was always most afraid of spontaneous human combustion. The idea that I might explode into flames at any moment would give me the shivers if ever I was home alone at night. But now that I have learned that anomalous fires are typically caused by the wicking effect, I have trouble believing in anything anymore. Also, it broke my heart to find out that crop circles are simply hillbilly art projects done under cover of darkness. But I still tell my son that Santa is a real thing even though I know one day he will know the truth and realize I am just a liar as well.
Smoking in bed is how the fire starts, butt the bedding and blankets soak up the fat as it renders out of the body. The bedding burns like a candle wicking up the fat and burning much longer than it would without the fat. I saw it recreated on MythBusters or some similar show using a hog wrapped in a wool blanket and laid on the bed. The pig burned with a low flame for about 12 hours without catching the room on fire. When it was done, the pig had burned away completely, and the bed was only burned where the pig had been laid.
As a young reporter I always wanted to get assigned to the Bat Boy Beat. Camera in hand, I'd wait outside Bat Boy's townhouse on W. 85th Street. I'd shout, "Bat Boy, have you any comment on the allegations that Covid-19 comes from bats?" Bat Boy would give me the finger, and I'd snap the picture and sell that shot to The Post inside of ten minutes. Bat Boy hated my guts. Especially when he was dating Madonna on the low down...
When I was a newspaper reporter— the funniest ones, only funny because they happen every year and for some reason, it’s always a “shock” and “to my surprise” add-in, are the stories about horny young bears coming out of the woods foraging for food, looking into people’s windows and regularly disturbing the peace. It was a running joke in the newsroom about who would be sent out to give the “horny bear report” and that they were just trying to find the local gay bar, which we called, “The Hunny Hole.”
Did anyone else ever see Bat-Boy the Musical? It was off-broadway 2002 and who knows when and where else. It was amazing. After i saw it, i thought, there’s nothing i could ever write that would be better. Then i forced my roommates to listen to the soundtrack over and over.
What’s this technique called of going vast before ending intimate? I feel it’s a good trick to infuse the small specific moment with the wonder and weight of the universe. So here, you touch on Russia, China, Bigfoot, Mothman, nationally distributed tabloids, an eternal desire for spirituality, radio, evolving but familiar mythology, unchanging hatred and constant aspirations… And then you narrow your focus to the very specific and rare instructions to sit in the middle of the plane, and then you narrow further to a secret shared… that you’ll never forget because of the uniqueness of the moment… but I feel the weight of the moment is communicated to us by the expansive everything you first led our minds to consider before narrowing the story to that small moment. That this story moved me, (and, yeah, there’s the dynamic tension between “never” and “always” in the final paragraph), but I feel the story would have had less power if you had cut the expansion out of the tabloids to the world of wonder and instead simply started telling it from your boarding. Was that an intentional spell?
If not, it should be. I feel it’s a good short short story structure.
Starting from general and ending specific is a common bit of writing advice that is found in almost every essay writing and public speaking text. And adding a personal anecdote to your writing is a quick way to get your audience on your side. That being said, Chuck Palahniuk is a hell of a writer, and he does the basics very well.
This isn't a great example, but I'm establishing precedent with multiple examples, then supposedly settling on a moment of "magic." First show how the incredible occurs in everyday media, to prove magic exists, then show an intimate moment. The fantastic early stuff will infuse the real moment with more dazzle. Also, by showing multiple examples -- tabloids, podcasts, radio shows -- you increase the likelihood the reader will find a relatable "way into" the overall story.
Awesome! I’m also reading George Saunders’ substack and his emphasis has been to examine how and where a particular story affects you and then analyze how it did so. So, here I was moved by that last paragraph; Chuck got me to feel a sense of awe at existence… and then a desire to be more open to experiencing life with wonder and gratitude for its brief moments of beauty… which made me re-read it all to see the technical way that feeling was produced in me…
My favorite adult bedtime stories during the first lock down here in France were the crazy absurd horrific adventures that were told in the podcast Welcome To Night Vale. The narrator has the deepest hypnotic voice ! I always fell asleep dreaming about this strange place that glorifies a purple cloud and even though times were uncertain in real life and the stories were between creepy and poetic, I felt safe here in my bed.
Did you ever listen to the episode of Coast to Coast where a distraught man called in and claimed to have worked at Area 51? He said that what we thought of as interplanetary beings were actually interdimensional, and that his location was being triangulated, then the entire show cut off. Good stuff.
That would've kept me awake. There's very much a 'War of the Worlds' vibe some nights
Its soooooo good. Lemme find it for ya...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee3bld4lTG0&feature=emb_title
John - good stuff. It was a fun listen. thanks.
You know Bob Lazar's story? He even has seasoned journalists thinking he's the real deal.
I saw the documentary on him. Really compelling.
Agree.
Its because he is the real deal. He has nothing to gain from lying, except harassment from the government. The IRS raided his house years ago. He was paid up on his taxes. The story of his coworker taking a plasma torch to some anti-gravity device, and blowing himself up. Nuts.
That and I watched an entire video of a body language expert break him down and the guy came up empty when looking for slip-ups even in body language. The fact that Lazar is telling the truth is absolutely terrifying. Even when Lazar talks about how the Government hired him because he was a highly unqualified mechanical engineer sounds EXACTLY like something the US government would do. Lazar said "I race cars in the desert! What the fuck am I doing looking this thing!?? Im totally not qualified to be here!" lol Yep. Hes telling the truth.
Of course they would hire a hot shot self made engineer! Bob is a badass. He is just not the type to make things up. His life has been awesome. He has no need to. He's super matter of fact, and completely unexcited when he speaks on these things.
When you play live music, there is a lonely old man in every bar that claims to be a scout for Americas Got Talent, or they know Greg Allman, or some producer is their cousin, or they used to be Kenny Roger's tour manager. I tell them Im not interested, but they keep talking anyway. These old men never learned that lying doesnt help them make friends, it has the opposite effect. Just trying to paint the picture that I know the type. Bob Lazar is not a bullshitter.
Word. I'm glad that there are other people as taken by Bob Lazar as I am. It's an absolutely striking story and the implications are extraordinary,
I remember seeing him on TV when I was a kid, and Im glad he is getting the attention he deserves. Also glad that the government released those documents, and are leaving him alone. Did you listen to the youtube link of the Area 51 caller I posted toward the top of the thread for Chuck?
Also: Im going to post my email at the top of the next thread and ask everyone to email me so I can start a discord for all the students here. This comment thread system is wonky, and Id like to get a tight little community going centered on writing if we can.
I listened to an interview with Bob Lazar. I want to believe in aliens, and I do think that there has to be other life in the universe. But I did not find Lazar's 'proofs' to be very compelling. For example, he 'predicted' element 115 long before it could be created by scientists in a lab, but there are many gaps in the periodic table of elements. All one has to do is pick a number from one of the gaps, and sometime in the future scientists will 'discover' that element in the lab. For me to believe that element 115 could power a craft of some sort through the manipulation of gravity as Lazar claims, the element would have to be shown in the labs of the scientists who created it to have some sort of properties other than simple existence.
He has no proof, but Im taking his word for it on this one.
It would be totally cool if it was true. And hopefully one day when we do find the aliens, they will be benevolent and not like the ones from any of those many alien invasion movies.
Exhaustion sets in after another day of elation and overexcitement... So glad I didn't (p)regift that Pixie Project bookmark...resplendent with our wedding colours...mirroring the once-in-a-lifetime purchase of my Milan-made winter coat (definitely worth it btw!)...validating my life choice to make purple my hallmark.. and you didn't even know it was going to me.
Bravo! That gesture is absolutely going to create positive ripples across the universe.
Plus I'm not going blind!! (passed my vision test with flying colours for the first time in a good decade).
You'll understand my pun machine being in stunned mode.
Thanks for the tall (?) tale. ;)
Glad you had a less eventful flight than in Survivor
PS If you're still accepting pix of people's boxes, I got most of the accoutrements via my very skilled smuggler/ally in your wonderful country.
I'm dying to know if the authorities spoiled the wrapping...! Yes, please, you can send Dennis a photo(s).
That is a question that will forever remain unanswered (unless another "alien" finagles one of those gifts)...I invited my benefactor to keep what she wanted (e.g. the candy, the letter in her name) and she said it would be easier to just send the unadorned (but pretty nonetheless) box in a packing envelope. I did see the picture though.
Judging by packages I've ordered recently, I highly doubt all those beautiful bows and flowers would have made it intact. I didn't realize the box was so small and light! haha
The bookmark blows the necklace away as far as my tastes go. My "assonant" friend sent me a picture of the letter, so I have a version of it. She's a videographer so documented the whole unwrapping carefully.
We poor cousins of the Americans just have to be grateful that we're able to get the crumbs of the original masterpiece. ;) Definitely made my day! The jade mouse bears a pretty strong resemblance to a turtle (grin).
So how's Botswana? Did you do a reading there too?
The Botswana agates came from London.
Why does Mr. Palahniuk want pictures of people's boxes?
You know what a box is a euphemism for? 😂
I'm reading "Cannibal" as we speak. Yeah I have a pretty good idea about every euphemism ever thought up apparently.
Seriously, it's that same bookmark people got for donating to the pixie project.
Apparently it took him 3 days to make the box, or was it the bookmark ? 😜
I could go really deep with this but I'm terrified irritating Mr. Palahniuk. lololol So we'll just keep it light. I still need to send him my box. lol It's Krispy Kreme flavored.
Both.
Alex Jones?
I got to that party too late. He was scrubbed while I was still obsessed with Fascinating Horror on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yNC4bfZ5U0
He still has his website. Just no social media. Its always weird when he winds up being right.
Interesting. Reminds me of the Carrollton bus crash that led to all busses being required to have multiple emergency exits. There was a documentary about it on Amazon I watched ~4 years ago. Happened in the place where I grew up, and just returned to. Went to school with the daughter of the drunk driver who caused it.
Most nights out it used to be Worcester for me but now it’s Providence. A fucking lovely town, it has a lot more heart and personality. Plus there’s an actual gay community there. The old one in Worcester died some time back in the early 2000’s and now all that left is a dive called “The Malebox,” with nothing but old men waiting to pounce on unsuspecting teens and 20 something’s. If one could stand to ride a half hour south from old Woosta, there is brighter light with colorful drag queens and glory holes.
Ah, the glory days of the Bob Damron Guide and finding the secret knock to gain admission to Toad Hall in Great Falls, Montana.
Ours was a foot tap under the stall door.
You and the Governor of Idaho at the Minneapolis airport. "I have a wide stance."
I had him confused with the senator from Illinois. I forgot just how many closeted politicians were brought down by the temptation of a glory hole.
When I was a youngun, I was taught by an elder gay that if you didn't have a Damron's, check the yellow pages under 'taverns' or 'nightclubs' and if there were no obvious-sounding names, call the local police and ask them. I did that often- they'd sometimes giggle and pass the phone to a rookie, but they would tell me what gay bars were in town.
My how things have changed. When I was a youngin the better bar In Worcester, before it closed, was called A-men. Now they’re just called “The Fist Me,” or “The Boys Dad.”
"Malebox" is gold. If I owned a gay bar I'd call it "Adam and Steve's". I'm sure that's already been thought of but I don't care to Google it.
It doesn’t matter if it’s used. I’ve seen places where they don’t even try just called, “the end up.”
One of the best and oldest discos in San Francisco 👍🎶
It was a friend in San Fran who told me about that place!
I used to say that mailbox was an oxymoron as a joke. Glad to know I wasnt the only one who noticed.
Art Bell and endless discussion of contrails on Coast to Coast. Usually listened to on AM radio while driving somewhere on an empty highway at 2 in the morning. Looking back, given the time and the dark highways, I can imagine we were all a little more susceptible to the most outlandish of tales.
(chuck likes) Contrails were the only thing my mother-in-law and I could agreed upon. They're the work of the Devil.
What's your take on Ancient Aliens?
I just want to be named Thor Heyerdahl.
That show explores fantastic concepts and wonderful ideas but it's like the writers think "Oh shit! We have to tie this profound idea back to Aliens. Just write down that aliens did it!" I'd love to write for that show.
I can't believe that show is still going. It jumped the shark after season one.
Yeah but we all need that once show that helps us fall asleep. That's just interesting enough. The one with the monotone narrator and a guarantee that no matter what episode it is it will still be the same episode.
I had no idea they still made episodes. I bought a season to eviscerate for a fallacies of logic paper in college years ago. My friends and I had a good laugh.
There's an extremely in depth video on YouTube that debunks most of the claims in the show. I think Rogan mentioned it a while back.
I bet that's a fun read.
You should get in touch with them! If its still on. I dont have TV.
"In another minute we’ll be strangers once more. We will never again see each other. But part of me will always be sitting next to her, staring at the skyline of Manhattan and hearing her whisper."...Too good Mr Palahniuk. Just lovely.
Indeed!
LOL. Speaking of outrageous stories. My friend slipped me the most outrageous story to add to chapter two of my essay. Apparently feral cats have been breaking into body farms and eating the fresh human dead bodies laid out for study at the universities. LOLOL They stated "Cats showed preference for bodies in relatively early decomposition.” https://www.newsweek.com/feral-cat-eat-human-corpse-1482549 ...You're welcome. LOL
Oh wow a guy in my workshop just finished a novel that involves a cat eating a corpse. Gonna show him this.
I'm still laughing after 24 hours. I added it to chapter 2 immediately.
Now I want to go on the Rogan show to talk about THAT!! My dogs would just roll on the dead bodies and come home happy and proud -- that would make a good short story.
It's too great! Glad I could help! :)
Speaking of the disembodied and cats, an interesting thing happened to me the other morning: my neighbor lady was out front of her house, a little perplexed and distraught. I offered some help and she said yes, as I walked over there was a cat, disembodied with its intestines strewn all over the lawn. Very neatly and the cat was still very much intact. (The body that is) . But yeah, intestines completely pulled out. I live in a relatively urban environment near downtown Phoenix. Some say it was a coyote? Any thoughts on what could have caused this ? I’ve ruled out another cat or cats. Thanks!
Btw, I thought cats only like warm, fresh organs? Are they evolving out of compromise? Truly modern times
Holy hell! I would guess Coyote. Poor baby.
A coyote likely wouldn't have left it though...
Living in Phoenix, it was probably killed by a chupacabra or in this case a chupagato.
In the middle of a city, I would guess that a human did that. A coyote would have eaten the entrails.
Didn't mean to e-Rhode the quality of the dialogue, or the gift wrapping. 😜
E-Rhode? That pun was tack-less. (airplane lingo)
Are you suggesting that I'm going into a tale spin?
I'll give that one two flaps up.
Buoy I had to work hard for that! haha I thought yaw were just reading all the other ones and would miss this "ace" haha
I'm learning the hard way to overpost at my own risk haha Maybe I should just delete the "warmup" posts. ;) (and keep posting "non sequiturs" on other threads whenever the mood hits).
Or just say "crew it" and give my creativity free reign haha
PS Africa is amazing (based on trips to Mali, Senegal and Kenya)
This is *my* favourite moment, especially in an age of really inconvenient travel.
See you at the Nolle Contendere tomorrow.
Re your 2nd reply (I'm a bad inlfuence, it seems haha)... Aisle take what I can get!
last section, what a beautiful moment of anonymous intimacy
The tips of trees a silhouette in teals and navy blues. Fence posts made from thick old tree branches a blur as my Jeep dips into the cool valleys of the back roads. The road patches that snake the tar pressed roads begin to fade into darkness as the sun disappears under the horizon. Frogs and insects hum at each stop sign as I drive down the empty pavement.
This road my regular route home to Peculiar. A small town with a few stop lights and gas stations. Sometimes folks make comments about the town name. The local lore is that someone got tired of requesting names for the town that had already been selected. After multiple name submissions they finally asked to be given a peculiar town name, so they got what they asked for.
The headlights illuminate the fading striped lines and over grown grasses along the fence lines. Everything else is darkness. Suddenly the night sky lights up a strange shade of blue. Similar to the lighting of a lighting strike, but it lingers for a few seconds. Then the light recedes like a giant squeegee pulling it across the sky. Then darkness. I instinctively hit the brakes and hunker down in my seat a little. Peeking over the steering wheel I scan the night sky. Are we getting shelled by an attack? Was it a boulder burning through the atmosphere? There is no sound. No more lights. The gravel cracks under the tires as I start to head home once more.
I talk to my room mate about weird light that filled the entire night sky. They said their work mates saw it too in the town south of the area. Folks wondered if it was the military doing testing or UFOs. Maybe it was some big government experiment.
To this day, I still have no idea what lit up the sky that night out in the middle of no where. Never seen anything like it since. About a decade later, while watching Elon's space trash lighting up the night sky, I saw a video with a large meteor landing that did something similar to the night sky, so maybe it was a big space rock making its final landing after a long journey through space?
I so much love the name Peculiar for a town. Thank you.
Odd, WV and Odds, KY. Hell for Certain, Beaverlick, and Big Bone Lick, KY. Appalachia is a strange and wondrous place.
Been a listener of coast to coast since the 90’s. Glad to know you are to , Chuck! Have a great tour!
Do you think that anyone in a creative pursuit has to believe in magic on some level? Could someone who participates in absolutely no sort of magical thinking be a good musician, writer, or painter?
Magical Thinking by Augusten Burroughs is good stuff, and my life has been vastly improved by entertaining the idea that magic exists the past couple years.
In reality, I am like a Vulcan and don't believe in anything I can't see or can be measured by some scientific instrument, and I participate in all the artistic pursuits: art, music, writing, etc.
In my imagination, I am all for sci-fi, fantasy, magic, and other impossible things. This definitely feeds into my creative flo states and TTRPG game design.
I think creative people come in many shapes and sizes. We all have our own path to the same river.
Im a very critical/skeptical person, and magic can also be things that we cant measure or explain... yet. Ive had too many scary instances of intuition to write off anything I cant explain.
Magical thinking, or superstitious thinking is deeply tied to our learning instinct as part of the animal kingdom. It gave birth to idols, cults and religions but, you might be right aswell to question if it feeds an artist's creativity and work.
I believe it to be a very beneficial thing as long as it is managed, balanced. I have a head full of doubt about everything, and groupthink is terrifying, so I dont get into any extreme versions.
Oh, magic exists, but using words to access it is like walking to the moon.
The precognitive/intuitive things that have happened in your books, then in the real world. Does that count as using words to access it?
How do you define magic, chuck?
This story brings back memories of the time I was stranded at Belgrade airport in December 1992.
The Bosnian War was in full swing and the airport was completely dark and empty except for about a dozen passengers heading to various European destinations.
My only source of entertainment during my wait was a television that played "Take On Me" by Norwegian synth-pop band A-ha on an endless loop and my only source of sustenance was a duty free bottle of Absolute vodka I had bought with me from Australia.
As I waited for the next flight to Athens the airport slowly emptied and I found myself completely alone in the airport and half drunk.
Just before midnight the Olympic airlines plane arrived and before I boarded I was joined by a middle aged man dressed completely in black.
A huge round gold medallion shaped like sun hung on a thick gold chain over his black turtle neck and he also wore a quarter length black leather coat.
We arrived in Athens around 2:00 am and reached Greek customs together.
As I opened my luggage for inspection, the man in black produced a burgundy passport and I heard the customs officers discuss his diplomatic status and they waved him through without checking his briefcase.
Moments later I was standing at the taxi rank and I saw him standing next to a black Mercedes, as he was getting in he turned to me and smiled with sharp gold canines.
I spent a lot of time around tattoo shops in the 90s. You would be surprised by how common it was to see people who had their dentist implant them with vampire teeth. Anne Rice seemed to have a big impact on young men during that time period.
And YOU had me at the mention of A-ha.
I was just listening to George Noory's Coast to Coast the other night around 2am because Steve Shippy was on to talk about a recent paranormal documentary about Danny Rollings. One enthusiastic man from the East Coast called in and he was convinced that bisexuality was the key to becoming in tune with the spirit world. He was 100% sure it was the only way to fully experience the paranormal and that it aided in communicating with ghosts. I want two of whatever he was on :)
Also I am never canceling that subscription, Coast to Coast is exactly what I've been missing since Weekly World News left store shelves.
Aliens do love their anal probes. Maybe that caller knew what he was talking about.
Too spooky. During my childhood you didn't want to be a cow in a pasture in Montana, not unless you wanted to get radical surgery at night from aliens.
As a child, I was always most afraid of spontaneous human combustion. The idea that I might explode into flames at any moment would give me the shivers if ever I was home alone at night. But now that I have learned that anomalous fires are typically caused by the wicking effect, I have trouble believing in anything anymore. Also, it broke my heart to find out that crop circles are simply hillbilly art projects done under cover of darkness. But I still tell my son that Santa is a real thing even though I know one day he will know the truth and realize I am just a liar as well.
Ive read that this was nearly always a result of smoking in bed, and having highly combustible bedding. Have no idea if its the truth or not.
Smoking in bed is how the fire starts, butt the bedding and blankets soak up the fat as it renders out of the body. The bedding burns like a candle wicking up the fat and burning much longer than it would without the fat. I saw it recreated on MythBusters or some similar show using a hog wrapped in a wool blanket and laid on the bed. The pig burned with a low flame for about 12 hours without catching the room on fire. When it was done, the pig had burned away completely, and the bed was only burned where the pig had been laid.
As a young reporter I always wanted to get assigned to the Bat Boy Beat. Camera in hand, I'd wait outside Bat Boy's townhouse on W. 85th Street. I'd shout, "Bat Boy, have you any comment on the allegations that Covid-19 comes from bats?" Bat Boy would give me the finger, and I'd snap the picture and sell that shot to The Post inside of ten minutes. Bat Boy hated my guts. Especially when he was dating Madonna on the low down...
When I was a newspaper reporter— the funniest ones, only funny because they happen every year and for some reason, it’s always a “shock” and “to my surprise” add-in, are the stories about horny young bears coming out of the woods foraging for food, looking into people’s windows and regularly disturbing the peace. It was a running joke in the newsroom about who would be sent out to give the “horny bear report” and that they were just trying to find the local gay bar, which we called, “The Hunny Hole.”
Oh, Pooh you silly old thing.
Wasn't Madonna sleeping with him while officially seeing Sean Penn?
Yeah, well that's why they never had a DNA test, isn't it?
Did anyone else ever see Bat-Boy the Musical? It was off-broadway 2002 and who knows when and where else. It was amazing. After i saw it, i thought, there’s nothing i could ever write that would be better. Then i forced my roommates to listen to the soundtrack over and over.
If its ever revived and in your town, get tickets
What’s this technique called of going vast before ending intimate? I feel it’s a good trick to infuse the small specific moment with the wonder and weight of the universe. So here, you touch on Russia, China, Bigfoot, Mothman, nationally distributed tabloids, an eternal desire for spirituality, radio, evolving but familiar mythology, unchanging hatred and constant aspirations… And then you narrow your focus to the very specific and rare instructions to sit in the middle of the plane, and then you narrow further to a secret shared… that you’ll never forget because of the uniqueness of the moment… but I feel the weight of the moment is communicated to us by the expansive everything you first led our minds to consider before narrowing the story to that small moment. That this story moved me, (and, yeah, there’s the dynamic tension between “never” and “always” in the final paragraph), but I feel the story would have had less power if you had cut the expansion out of the tabloids to the world of wonder and instead simply started telling it from your boarding. Was that an intentional spell?
If not, it should be. I feel it’s a good short short story structure.
Starting from general and ending specific is a common bit of writing advice that is found in almost every essay writing and public speaking text. And adding a personal anecdote to your writing is a quick way to get your audience on your side. That being said, Chuck Palahniuk is a hell of a writer, and he does the basics very well.
This isn't a great example, but I'm establishing precedent with multiple examples, then supposedly settling on a moment of "magic." First show how the incredible occurs in everyday media, to prove magic exists, then show an intimate moment. The fantastic early stuff will infuse the real moment with more dazzle. Also, by showing multiple examples -- tabloids, podcasts, radio shows -- you increase the likelihood the reader will find a relatable "way into" the overall story.
Thank you for breaking this down. These comment sections are a blast, but these tidbits are my favorite. I need all the help I can get.
Thank you for breaking this down or Id have never noticed.
Awesome! I’m also reading George Saunders’ substack and his emphasis has been to examine how and where a particular story affects you and then analyze how it did so. So, here I was moved by that last paragraph; Chuck got me to feel a sense of awe at existence… and then a desire to be more open to experiencing life with wonder and gratitude for its brief moments of beauty… which made me re-read it all to see the technical way that feeling was produced in me…
But honestly i didnt know if i was understanding the technical parts properly, so thanks for letting me know you learned something from my attempt!
My favorite adult bedtime stories during the first lock down here in France were the crazy absurd horrific adventures that were told in the podcast Welcome To Night Vale. The narrator has the deepest hypnotic voice ! I always fell asleep dreaming about this strange place that glorifies a purple cloud and even though times were uncertain in real life and the stories were between creepy and poetic, I felt safe here in my bed.