Steamshovel's e-mail address: SteamshovelPress@gmail.com .
Still can't help from being wowed by the idea that Steve Ditko, the artistic genius who gave Spiderman to every baby boomer's youth, continues to produce original comics much better than those found in the comics shops. His latest, Sixteen, includes several full page takes on "The Celebrity," a generalized caricature that surely has in part Stan Lee as its inspiration. Much as he does with Jack Kirby, Lee relies on a professed bad memory to give Ditko short shrift when it comes to the creation of Spiderman. Ditko's over that certainly, although it's something to remember now that Hollywood plans a reboot of the Spiderman movie franchise, but he has generalized a celebrity type that certainly includes Lee--who still rides Ditko and Kirby creations to fame and fortune via movie cameos and interviews. The likes of the shallow celebrity are legion in the media and they all fit on Ditko's skewer. Mad quotes fall over the pages depicting him: "We want...a new...different... change...same...better...keep...ad...why...who is...where...have to...why that... why not...who did you swipe that from.?" Sixteen also has a character called "The Madman-"-deriving inspiration perhaps from that current television hit about the advertising world set in the time of Ditko's creative zenith. Ditko long ago went down philosophical paths that went places where many of his readers can only wave to, but how can anyone not be fascinated by what this elder statesman of the comics industry still has to say? Four dollars from Robin Snyder and Steve Ditko, 3745 Canterbury Lane #81, Bellingham, WA 98225-1186. As for Stan Lee, his memory may be poor but he hasn't forgotten how they do business in the comics industry.
Barack Obama congratulated Huffpo Saturday night at the White House press dinner for its Pulitzer winning links to hard hitting journalism.
In a new Kindle book, The Growler Conspiracy, author John Rossmann explores the simking of the Titanic as a possible terrorist act. Find out more here.
Loren Coleman has an obituary with some details here.
And this note of a planned memorial came from Phyllis' loved ones:
P Day Apr 14 @Ruscomb
Friend, Forteans & Lansmen Lend Me your Hears for a Night,
Dr Bob & Zoe have generously given me use of Roscombe Mansion once again. For those who attended the soiree last June, I'm sure you'll remember what a lovely place it is I believe it to be the perfect setting for a tribute to Phyllis.
The gathering will start around 6PM and pizza & drinks will be delivered @7PM.
I have 2 requests of those planning to attend:
1) Please bring a story/remembrance of Phyllis to share.
2) Please bring your own wine/beer or in lieu of that a small donation to help defray the food costs would be most appreciated.
Directions:http://www.ruscombe.org/directionstoruscombe.html
Looking forwrd to seeing you all there & hearing your tales of P.
Sincerely
Al
410-243-8586
For Donations:
500 W. University Pkwy 8H
Balt. MD 21210
PS: For the poets among us poems would be nice.i
New interview with Kenn Thomas at Nancy and Bill Birnes' Future Theater
A bisociative moment from Roy Lisker:
It is well known that the night sky on earth, as seen by the Hubble Telescope or other satellites, is brightly lit up in all habitable regions, save for one conspicuous area that is almost totally black: the national territory of North Korea. The country is so poor, and its government so despotic that throughout the night most of its subjects must scramble about in the dark, perhaps with the possible assistance of candles.
A closely related fact is the dilemma of astronomers, who have found that it is becoming increasingly more difficult to find places on earth where large telescopes can be built and operated without interference from the light pollution caused by the bright lights of cities, towns asnd highways that encircle the globe.
As indicated above, there still exists one place where this is not a problem: North Korea!!
It has always been the case throughout history that Science has found a way to ignore trifling, obstructive and irritating moral and political objections to its unrelenting progress. ALL progress is GOOD, and “There’s no progress like scientific progress!”
It’s pretty clear that the next frontier for observational astronomy is the construction of a huge telescope in a world class observatory on some very high mountain in North Korea; say Kwanmo-bong, Hamgyong-bukto , elevation 2,541 m
The experience of over half a century (since North Korea was blasted into the Stone Age by America’s fabulous bombs- oh, yes: “science” found a way around that too, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki), is that, although the government of North Korea could care less about its subjects, it has a major stake in keeping its baby-faced leaders in an unlimited paradise of toys, gadgetry, movies, spectacles, fantastic banquets, parades, weapons....
Think about it: it wouldn’t cost more than a few billion dollars of bribes , and some old obsolete Cruise missile parts, (maybe even the rusted hull of a nuclear submarine thrown into the bargain) for the world’s astronomers to purchase, lease or rent the top of Kwanmo-bong, Hamgyong-bukto for a few centuries. It would also promise to name a galaxy after Kim Il-Sung, a star after Kim Jong-il, and a planet after Kim Jong-un.
One important piece of the deal would be a commitment on the part of North Korea's leaders to never, ever, implement a program of electrification of North Korea, whether by hydro-electric power, nuclear power, or coal, thus guaranteeing that ordinary electric illumination will never become to birth-right of its citizens, while at the same time making sure that the most distant quasars will remain within the reach of mankind’s insatiable curiosity.
By Steamshovel calculations, using the Mayan calendar, this Wednseday night (1/18) will witness a rare broadcast of the Route 66 episode "I'm Here To Kill A King", with Martin Milner's Kerouac character doing the multiple Oswald bit when he encounters a political assassin who looks just like him (and is also played by Milner). The episode never aired during the program's original run, in deference to the JFK assassination, which happened a week prior to its originally scheduled broadcast. This week's broadcast happens on KNLC Channel 24, which reaches Missouri and the midwest. KNLC is a Christian station, so the program will be interspersed with scenes soliciting charity for the homeless. No connection between the assassination of JFK and the continued plight of the poor necessarily implied.
A correspondent recently sent along a diatribe against the late, great Christopher Hitchens, who died on December 17, complaining about what a white man Hitchens was. That summary says it all about the editorial, no more point repeating it than repeating a fundamentalist Christian’s complaints about non-believers. It also hardly matters that the least of what Hitchens demonstrated in his long, brilliant career was that the “left” does not have to be stuck with only those kinds of simplisms. The correspondent wanted to call him a “neocon”, but that also was wrong. As when Tim Leary died, I haven’t written an obituary about Hitchens—all praise seems faint and honoring either man deserves a better place than in just another editorial. Below, however, is my response to the correspondent, without quote or citation to the worthless diatribe he forwarded:
Hitchens never claimed to be a neocon--"I'm not any kind of conservative". Maybe that's why he reminds you of Chomsky and Cockburn, although both hated Hitchens as well. His thinking on the Iraq war was spot on, and certainly wasn't uncritical of Bush (who he called "just the latest moron to hold the office"). The US put Saddam Hussein in power in the first place. Failed policy. Fought a war with him and withdrew. Failed policy. Instituted horrific boycotts of food and medicine that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children. Failed policy. Killed him and destroyed his regime. Boom. Arab Spring. It's that kind of insight that Hitchens should be remembered for, moreso than all that pointless debating about the existence of God. And to hell with people who want the "peace" of the likes of Saddam Hussein, especially that Galloway guy-- who was on Saddam's payroll--mentioned by that idiot woman. I have a DVD of Hitchens debating him that would shut her mouth if that was possible.
I met Christopher Hitchens once, on the street corner at the old Midnight Special bookstore in LA, where I had preceded him as a lecturer that night. We discussed a then current controversy about Arthur Koestler. I made a note about it at the old Things Are Gonna Slide column at steamshovelpress.comwhich miraculously still survives on the internet (from 1989!) here.
I defended Koestler as I often have and expect to defend Hitchens, posthumously ad infinitum. My main thought to him was that just because you know someone who makes an accusation, as Hitchens did, doesn’t make the accusation true. Having read everything Koestler ever wrote, and feeling as if I "knew” him, or enough of his character to be fairly confidant he wasn't a rapist, I need more than some woman’s affidavit that this was anything more than a he said/she said thing blown out of proportion for publicity’s sake. Hitchens’ last comment to me before finishing his cigarette and returning to Midnight Special: “Well, a conspiracy theory is better than no theory at all.” I didn’t concede my point, but that comment was still true, although Hitchens no doubt modified the idea somewhat after 9/11. I suspect, in fact, that his views about religion have a basis in his understanding about parapolitics. No more time now, though, to explore it more with him.
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Welcome Coast To Coast listeners! Scroll to the next screen for order info on JFK & UFO or visit publisher Feral House.
Recent book reviews can be found at Weird Wiltshire.
The essay on the Maury Island related plane crash is located at Skylaire Alfvegren's LOWFI website.
Two essays, one on Maury Island and another on Hollywood and Roswell can be found at Robbie Graham's Siver Screen Saucers.
Those interested in sharing Conspiracy Research Resources, send $1 to Kenn Thomas, POB 210553, St. Louis, MO 63121 for a list of available DVDs and photocopies research.
NEW FIND AND BACK ISSUE SALE! Steamshovel just rediscoverd a box of its back issues. These are the actual artifacts, not photocopies. The box included copies of issue numbers 5, 7, 8 (two copies only), 9, 14 (one copy), 16 (four copies), 17 (three copies), 19, 20 and 21. Anyone interested in owning any of these can get them now for $2 each plus $1 postage while supplies last. Send to: Kenn Thomas, POB 210553, St. Louis, MO 63121.
See below for new steamshovelpress.com content, new book product and a
frequent off-hand parapolitical remark!
STILL AVAILABLE: Tim Leary at the Cafe Chaos with Kenn Thomas, DVD, $10
NEW E-BOOK!POPULAR PARAPOLITICSBY KENN THOMAS
219 pages of commentary on the nexus between parapolitics and popular culture by Steamshovel Press editor Kenn Thomas. Includes first hand accounts of Elvis Presley's funeral; the last of the great Beat writer conferences; and never before published commentary by JFK Secret Service agent Abraham Bolden on famed researcher Sherman Skolnick. Now available only on CD, as PDF, and through US Mail. $15 post paid to Kenn Thomas, POB 210553, St. Louis, MO 63121.****************************************************************
NOW OUT!FERAL HOUSE JFK & UFO: Military-Industrial Conspiracy and Cover-Up from Maury Island to Dallas
***************************************************************** Click on the box below to order other Steamshovel product.
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PARAPOLITICS OFFHAND, continued7/20/11: Dreamland listeners: the subject of the Australian connection to the JFK assasination came up with the promise of a link to more information on Barr McClellan's LBJ-Did-It book containing more info. That link is here. The Dreamland interview can be accessed here. 7/15/11: Scroll past the product ads below to get to the "Long Overdue Book Reviews"... 7/9/11: Greg Bishop interviews Kenn Thomas at Radio Misterioso. Radio Misterioso.
Much delayed link to previous interview on The Paracast.
(Search: Kenn Thomas). A facebook account and page have been set up as well for Steamshovel. Because of the limitations of the social networks, more sbstantive content will remain here at steamshovelpress.com.
LONG OVERDUE BOOK REVIEWSby Kenn ThomasFeral House bills Siegel and Shuster's Funnyman as the "first Jewish superhero" in this anthology that reprints certainly most of that comic book and strip. So the book should appeal to students of both popular American culture and Jewish cultural identity. Text chapters here deal with the history of Jewish humor, including analytical takes concerning self-mockery, inversion, solipsism and materialism sure to deprive the subject of some laughter, accompanied by essays on old Jewish superhero legends and the decline of the modern superhero. Siegel and Shuster created Superman, after all, the quintessential comic book super guy, and this lesser known creation-Funnyman, a crime fighting comedian named Larry Davis-demonstrates more clearly the Jewish roots of their inspiration. Authors Thomas Andrae and Mel Gordon also make a case for a connection between the creation of Funnyman and that of the state of Israel. The book is short on discussing comic books as secular culture in which Jewish tradition stews along with everything else, but in the process of directing this focus here, the authors shed some new light on Siegel and Shuster's legal struggles. They worked harder to retain the rights for Funnyman after the legendary ripping off they received from their publishers over Superman. The comic book industry has been one of those "conspiracy as usual" businesses that routinely deprived its best creators of a percentage of the licensing of their own creations. Recent lawsuits involving technicalities of the changing copyright laws have rectified this only to the smallest degree, and a similar case being fought between Jack Kirby's estate and Disney, which owns the Marvel properties Kirby created, remains a thing to be looked at for a possible victory against this type of conspiracy. Alas, no such legal drama accompanies Funnyman, a character few people know of or care about, and the book dodges any cynical remarks about comics economics and Shylock stereotypes. And while its essays may be overcooked, it does reprint an obscure and well-done piece of comics history and so is a must for the geeky bookshelf.
We laugh to keep from crying seems to be the lesson learned from The Sin ister Truth, a graphic novel about MKULTRA. MKULTRA, of course, is the brainwashing program conducted by the CIA largely in secret although much has been learned about it since from declassified files. Researchers have poured over such things and produced much in terms of documenting and exposing this record of human abuse. Writer Jason Ciaccia and Aaron Norhanian have taken it in a different direction, as a satirical graphic novel. MKULTRA luminary Sidney Gottlieb appears as the first protagonist, a mad scientist rendered in Ralph Steadman like fashion, cavorting with hookers, making murderous chaos of laboratories, LSD drenched mania animating his every move. All the scenes of mayhem, of course, are accompanied by very neatly typed references to their corresponding government file or report. According to Sinister Truth it all started after Eisenhower snubbed Castro, forcing the Cuban dictator into the arms of Soviet Communism. Much of the Sinister Truth graphically depicts the various absurd assassination attempts against the Cuban dictator. The subject begs an even more thorough examination through such gallows humor and sick comedy-the roots of MKULTRA trace back to back engineering North Korea's brainwashing of American pilots and that could make a volume in and of itself. The creators state that their research involves over 18,000 recently declassified CIA File. Surely this is a cause for a multi volume series! www.sinistertruth.com
Prison remediation activists have produced It’s More Expensive To No Nothing, a DVD documentary about the effect of the rehabilitation programs behind bars. Steamshovel receives a lot of mail from prisoners in part because it presents points of view that differ from the mainstream which has an ideational center that many prisoners have long since departed. Reasons for this include unjust incarceration in some instances, in other instance prisoners seek to more to affirm the dissenting view of the world that led to criminal behavior; and, of course, many are just bored with whatever copies of Time and Newsweek the prisons leave out for reading purposes. It’s More Expensive To Do Nothing points out the cost advantage of remedial programs--$5000 for rehabbing as opposed to the $75,000 it costs to keep someone in prison for a year. Much often is said about many prisoners being exactly where they want to be—Charles Mansion often offered as the prime example, and with these figures that becomes easier to understand. So in a way this documentary exposes a prisoner scam; but, of course, in a more important way it makes a common sense argument about retraining and release, especially for nonviolent first offenders. Ordering Steamshovel in prison can be the first step in literacy retraining, one that allows for intellectual self-respect—that is, literacy as a gathering of intelligence rather than acquiescence to the status quo. There are hardball realities to face, though: many prions reject material that has even simple urse words—in one case, a book was returned that had a small amount of public hair appearing in a photo—and the outsourcing of prison maintenance to groups like Wackenhut ensure via competition that the prison industry will continue to be grown. Nevertheless, this documentary leads the way to the glimmer of hope that still resides within the locked up readership. Contact: polly@humaneexposures.com
Westholme Publishing reprinted The Flying Saucer as part of its “America Reads” program, designed to present long forgotten fiction from various times in American history, although the fiction all seems British. The other two immediate volumes include Limbo, about cyborgs trying to takeover and replace human limbs; and One, a 1984-like examination of state suppression of individuality. These other two belong solidly in the science fiction camp. As the first novel to ever use the term “Flying Saucer” in its title, however, and coming so close to that first post-War wave of sightings that included Kenneth Arnold and Maury Island, the type of fiction represented by The Flying Saucer brings it a step closer to reality as actually experienced rather than speculated about. UK author and historian Bernard Newman has the first of the “saucers”--described actually as rockets--come down in Leicestshire but by chapter three has natives discovering them in the American southwest. It’s not a real alien threat, however, only a group of scientists staging crashes in order to unite world political factions, a la the sentiment expressed in the time of the novel by Douglas MacArthur and much later by Ronald Reagan. Unite the world behind a common threat from space, only here the threat includes depriving the earth of its gold. Saucer hysteria and parapolitical paranoia played out in prose contemporary to the day, without the filter of all the science-fiction excesses that came after and with some humor. info@west holmepublishing.com
6/5/11: Fred Crisman claimed that the TV show The Invaders was about his life, and the new book JFK&UFO offers as support for this the TV career of one-time FBI agent Mark Felt. History now recognizes Felt as the informer to Watergate investigators Woodward and Bernstein known as "Deep Throat". From 1965 to 1974 he also worked as a consultant to a television show called The FBI, produced by a company called Quinn Martin Productions. This at least establishes that such spooks--assets from the spy world to which Fred Lee Crisman claimed he belonged--did and do work for television shows. The Invaders was a Quinn Martin Production. But is that all to it? A close look at Mark Felt's obituary reveals an interesting fact: Felt's FBI job in the late 1940s included oversight of background checks for applicants at the Hanford plutonium plant in southeasetern Washington state. Fred Crisman's job application there is among the documents on him recovered through Freedom of Information Act requests. Felt's presence with the FBI in the Pacific northwest at that time adds him to a string of names including Guy Banister and Jim Garrison, both of JFK assassination notoriety, still entangled in a seemingly Gordian knot. 4/25/11: Ted Torbich put together his recent interview with Kenn Thomas and some photos from around the net and posted it as a video to YouTube here. 4/21/11: Kenn Thomas appears on blog radio this Friday! 4/19/11: Back and forth with conspiracy researchers usually stops at the forth, with pseudo-skeptics turning off their minds after the first rebuttal of a parapolitical argument. Two recent cases: Acharya S’ work on the history of religion in the Zeitgeist movie became pseudo-debunked by an Australian Christian educational bureaucrat named Dr. Charles Forbes. Her far more convincing rebuttal to that "debunking" appears here. Case number two: Jesse Ventura dismissed and belittled a guest from his own show when interviewed by Piers Morgan on CNN. That guest, Alfred Lambremont Webre , made a far more convincing comeback here. This demonstrates that as a conspiracy theorist, Ventura has about as much credibility as Obama-birther Donald Trump, wrapping the laughter curtain around the topics as if covering himself while arising from an egobath. 4/16/11: The vintage photo blog Shorpy came up with an interesting addition to the recent retread of the Guy Hottel flying saucer memo. Of course, at Shorpy, "there's always something interesting." 4/12/11: New comments on Kirby at Rob Steibel's most excellent Kirby Dynamics.! (kt's comments now a little further down the page) 4/10/11: Researchers trying to Roswell-cubbyhole a well-known 7/15/47 note by J. Edgar Hoover now see its infamous "La." abbreviation as possibly being "Sw"--as in "Southwest", like around Roswell where the flying saucer crashed. Steamshovel agrees that the damned abbreviation could be anything, especially in a time before the standardization of such abbreviations.
The memo goes on that "the army grabbed it and would not let us have it for cursory examination." Well, J. Edgar, it's kinda diffcult to just pass over a big ol' space ship for cursory examination, much less the reported field of scattered debris. Perhaps he refers to the 30 inch saucer handed over to Guy Banister three days prior to Hoover's note. Banister was FBI special agent in charge in northwest US at the time-later famous for his association with Lee Harvey Oswald down in Louisiana ("La."!)--who reported that the army took the small saucer. This happened in Twin Falls, Idaho, was turned over in Butte, Montana, and got reported in the Tacoma and Seattle papers, and who knows how J. Edgar might have abbreviated any of those? Read all about it in JFK & UFO! Click here for even older PARAPOLITICS OFFHAND posts. Steamshovel Press is best reached via e-mail at k23thomas@yahoo.com
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