Salamé!
Among the many disappointments in my life is discovering that Whitley Streiber - the horror author who penned the 'true' account of his UFO abduction experience in 1987's Communion - pronounced his surname as 'Streeber' rather than 'Stryber'.
Thus Streibernaut - my name for the famous grey alien that featured on the cover of his book (the name was a riff on the Cybernauts from the TV series The Avengers (my Twelfth Telly Recommendation)) didn't sound half as cool.
I don't think I believe in UFOs any more. When I was little I thought 'The truth is out there' and it would only be a matter of time before conclusive proof of the existence of flying saucers turned up. But what sounded like exciting encounters to my infant mind now come across as either outright fibs or some sort of delusion. Streiber in his book hedges his bets between the physical and psychological, going to great pains to be as vague as possible over what he believes to be the origin of his encounters.There's no mention of hubcaps spinning or otherwise.
I love that photo. It's of a Venusian scout ship as seen by famous 50s contactee George Adamski (as far as I know, no relation to the bloke who had a hit in the early 90s with Killer). The website I've linked to shows his films of these ships in action. They're not very convincing, but I can't help thinking how cool they would be if they were real. That's the appeal of the UFO phenomenon - the possibility that all doubts could one day be swept away if you were lucky enough to make contact yourself. I think it's all nonsense now, but part of me still longs for a close encounter.
If I do, at least I'll have some idea what to say to the visitors. The title of today's blog is spaceman talk for 'Farewell Good Brothers'. It comes from tape recordings made by one Philip Rodgers at his home in Grindleford in the Peak District. He goes into great detail about them, and the translations he deciphered here. Again, it's nonsense but the level of detail is compelling. We fill in the gaps in plausibility because we dearly want it to be true.
Mind you, I still haven't managed to explain those dreams I had of owls at the bottom of my bed when I was a child. Strange.
More soonliest.
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