Month: June 2003
1924: UFOs in Co. Wexford?
daev's neck of the woods... Just found this little gem... 1924 September - Two boys in County Wexford, Ireland, watched for several minutes as a solid beam of light several feet long travelled through the air a few feet from the ground. It moved at approximately 10mph, climbing a hedge and crossing a field, before encountering a railroad track and moving off along its length. (Source: The UFO Encylopedia (Headline) p. 412/413) More »
Alasdair Gray/Dermot Healy
A weird, wonderful lunch hour I'm just back from a two-up reading by Alasdair Gray and Dermot Healy, part of the Dublin Writers Festival. Last night, I saw Andrew O'Hagan and Zadie Smith. Gray and Healy were doing their thing in Project - the trend/dated new name for the Projects Arts Theatre, or Centre, arr, whatever. I wasn't previously too aware of Healy's work... in fact my only previous encounter with him was in the Chester Beatty Library. The SO and I had ligged into a reception there, for the free booze. I think we'd drunk an earlier one into submission. We stood there, sipping our cheap wine, until we were prevailed upon by a man covered in white hair and wearing one of those green waistcoat things usually worn by farmers, or horsey people. He was quite drunk, and had his arm in a sling. The intricacies of of...
The Dead Zoo – The Irish Natural History Museum, Dublin
The Natural History Museum, Dublin. Tequila, the RUC, Aliens and Kamikaze fish. It's got it all... In a previous blather piece we had bored the pants off of you regarding a certain statue outside the The Natural History Museum on Merrion Street, Dublin. As interesting as that story is, it's not half as interesting as what lies inside... The museum has long been the source of fascination and anecdote for Dubliners and visitors alike. Affectionately referred to as the 'Dead Zoo' by locals, it has become as famous in recent years for its authentic Victorian feeling as it has for its astounding collections. The Dead Zoo Claims have often been made that Natural History Museum Dublin, or 'The Dead Zoo' as Dubliners affectionately call it, is somehow untainted, unblemished and unchanged since it's inception and opening in the 1850's. The truth is somewhat more hazy and makes interesting reading. The...
I Love B3TA
A wonderful, wonderful website Visit b3ta.com Visit this site. Often. I can't explain why, it's just too bloody funny. See some of the stuff that b3ta has inspired me to create And here's one I prepared earlier, my AngelGrinder, now available as a t-shirt
Bleddy beasties and mad hoors
Nessie back in the news... ... Dammit, Nessie is back, and so is yer man, that white witch wrestler geezer, Kevin Carlyon. He must be on his holidays. He reckons that the spell he cast in 2001 - to stop Blather's biggest fan, Jan Ove Sundberg, from snaring the beastie - was too strong, and has dramatically cut down on the number of Nessie site sightings. As if. BBC: White witch to tempt Nessie A white witch has travelled to Scotland to try to lure its most famous monster out into the open. Kevin Carlyon, high priest of the British Coven of White Witches, will cast a spell during a ritual on the shores of Loch Ness on Friday. He wants to invoke Nessie to appear again, claiming there have been few sightings since he cast a spell to protect her. Mr Carlyon, from Hastings, East Sussex, made the "blocking...
The adventures of Jasper the time travelling cat (Volume 1. Episode 4)
Volume 1. Episode 4. Ahhh. How cute. Jasper meets Shakespeare... We hadn?t heard anything for almost a week at Blather Paranormal Investigations Inc. Indeed, so bored were we that we had taken to chicken jokes and brewing our own absinthe. And then, from nowhere, out of the blue as it were, we got a signal. The wireless crackled into life, spluttered forth a stream of static and then a torrent of shrieking, mewling and miaowing. It was, indeed he. Jasper the Time Travelling cat. It didn?t take us as long to lock the signal down (we?re getting better at it) and start downloading the data. It appeared he had now time-shifted to late 16th century England. London to be precise. It was difficult to pin-point his exact location, but it seems to have been a playhouse on the south bank of the Thames river, where he has been sharing quarters...
Thomas Heazle Parke (or “That Guy on the Statue…”) Part 2
More on the intrepid 19th century Irish adventurer and his discovery of the 'Mountains of The Moon'... <!-- --> In a previous piece we had explored how Parke had come to find himself embarking out on one of the most infamous exploratory journeys of the last century, through Africa. The end result of the journey was a calamity of huge proportions both in human and financial terms. And one cracking great story. "Dr. Parke I Presume?" The expedition, led by the famous explorer Henry Morton Stanley, (he of the "Dr. Livingstone I presume"? fame) departed in February of 1887, from Banana Point on the Western coast of Africa, and would make its way through the Congo. From there it wound its way through the then uncharted Ituri rainforest, and finally to Lake Albert where the beleaguered Emin Pasha was to be found, covering an extraordinary 3000 miles. It was an...
Mothman Curse Continues?
Richard Gere better watch out. Apparently. It seems a little tenuous... but stay tuned. Richard Gere: Future Victim Of `Mothman' Curse? PORTLAND, Maine (Wireless Flash) -- Richard Gere may want to watch his back for a while because he may soon fall victim to the "Curse Of "The Mothman Prophecies.""That's the word from Mothman researcher Loren Coleman, who says a recent plane crash in Los Angeles is only the latest event caused by the "Mothman Curse." More Blather on the Mothman Prophecies daev's article on disinfo.com June 13: The Mothman Death List by Loren Coleman Update 28/12/03: RTE:British actor Sir Alan Bates dies The 69-year-old died last night at a hospital in London after a long battle with cancer, his agent confirmed today. He was best known for his performances on screen in films like 'Women In Love' and 'The Fixer', and more recently in 'The Mothman Prophecies'. His most...
Fencing in water
Ok, the IFSC management have gone bananas Ok, the IFSC management have gone bananas. They've FENCED in George's Dock, using those high, portable fences usually used on building sides. What the hell is going on? Behind the wire, a duck and drake are escorting a flotilla of ducklings. Have they turned savage? Have the mullet grown teeth? Is it to stop the local kids from going swimming, in case they upset the fragile reality-tunnels of the yuppie middle-class? Maybe it's even to stop the kids from impaling themselves on some Victorian industrial artefact.
We’re all gonna die!
Ah bollocks. It's the end of the world again... Ah bollocks. It?s the end of the world again. And us here down at Blather Paranormal Investigations were just getting into the swing of things. Sure, only last week we got the time machine working and sent Jasper the cat hurtling off into the ether. We?ve had three reports back from him so far. The work is only beginning. The Ghost hunting venture has been coming along nicely too ? young Daev had the holding facility almost built for the spooks. Anyway, some miserable doom-monger in the states has predicted that it?s 50/50 for us humans. And we don?t disagree. Frankly, how a self-annihilating parasitic piece of filth like the human race has lasted this long is an utter mystery to us here at Blather HQ. But wait! Don't buy that bomb shelter you saw on 24 just yet! This cheerful...