The X-Files script that was too bleak to air: Maybe I’m just a glutton for punishment but as a 90s-era XPhile I kinda want to read it. Not available at the link in the article and a quick Google reveals only expensive printed versions remain, I’m safe for now.
Tyler Gunther’s Medieval Art: there’s more than just the “medieval food pyramid” thing that went around last week.
Greenland Unicorns and the Magical Alicorn: I never knew that narwhal horns formed such a large part of early modern Danish trade. Obviously, the Danes knew unicorns weren’t real but successfully managed to “rebrand” narwhals to keep up trade.
The Occult Remedy the Puritans Embraced: this explanation of the logic behind “sympathetic medicine” reminds me of the seeming illogic of alchemy. Neither work because they’re based on incorrect premises but the assumptions stemming from them are utterly logical.
Dirt Roads to Dreamland: 51 Trips to Area 51: the writer was visiting Area 51 before it was cool – and before the 1995 land grab of the main vantage points that made this secret base even more dangerous and difficult to access.
Brilliant Visions: Peyote among the Aesthetes: lest you think magic mushrooms were strictly a hippie thing, be advised that they also enjoyed a vogue with late 19th century artists and writers.
Pulled less from recent news and more from my current recreational reading:
Grab your Geiger counter: a trip to Chernobyl’s first rave: Actually more of an art installation, this article is from last fall but given the fresh interest created by the new HBO miniseries I thought it reasonable to include today. I’ve not seen the miniseries (no HBO, besides I doubt I could endure the “puppy scene”) but I’ve had a morbid interest in the catastrophe for years. I recently listened to the podcast [YouTube] about the show, and read the exhaustively detailed Midnight in Chernobyl. I also found a huge deck of photos at Imgur (warning: photos of radiation burns and mutated animals in the last third of the page). Though far from expert, I say with confidence that raving in Chernobyl is still probably a bad idea.
Detailed diagram of the Chernobyl reactor after the explosion taken from the Imgur set above. Drawings like this help me better envision what I read about in “Midnight In Chernobyl”.
What we know about Ron D. Moore’s For All Mankind so far: What if the Soviet Union had beaten the U.S. to the moon? The Space Race would have continued, aiming to be the first to Mars, Saturn, etc. Or at least according to Ron. D. Moore it would. I’m not sure what to make of this – on the one hand I love alternate history, on the other I can’t help but think the series is cynically timed to coincide with the Apollo 11 anniversary.
The Haunting Mystery of the USSR’s Lost Cosmonauts: How is it possible that a conspiracy theory that’s been around long enough for the Smithsonian to address it is something I’m only hearing about now? And from a nail-bitingly intense work of fiction rather than my usual weird sources, curiously enough. I think if the Soviet Union put people in space that they lost they would certainly have lied about it. I just doubt they could have kept it secret after the fall of the USSR. What do you think?
More Than 1 Million People Agree To ‘Storm Area 51,’ But The Air Force Says Stay Home – I’m amazed that Area 51 is still a “thing” on the pop cultural landscape this many years after “The X-Files” heyday, and while I suspect what people see there is bleeding edge human tech, I confess a curiosity about what lies beyond the black mailbox. I’m tickled that the Little A’Le’Inn is not only still in business but booked solid for that weekend, internet joke or not.
The ‘Inn in “Paul” wasn’t the real deal, but it appears they took pains to get the set right.
Taking a break from the travelogue because I’ve got a busy week:
Welcome to the Witch Capital of Norway: Vardø never capitalized on its bloody history in the manner of Salem MA, but it does have some stark monuments to the 1621 burnings. The article also includes some beautiful but bleak photos of the town as it is today.
Murder in the Mountains—AT Murderer left creepy occult clues at cache site: Randall Lee Smith, the “Appalachian Trail Murderer”, spent fifteen years in jail for killing two hikers in 1981 and upon release lived quietly…until he attempted another double killing in 2008. After Smith died authorities found his eerie outdoor cache of women’s underwear, glasses…and audio tapes of supposed magical rituals (stolen from the movie “The Craft”?). I can’t link directly to the “My Favorite Murder” podcast episode about Smith but if you want to know more that seems a good place to start.
The only remotely early modern thing that showed up under “party” on Giphy. Bluff King Hal and Co’s parties were not this morbid. Via.
Renaissance Festival Books: not modern renn faire but actual festivals that took place during the Renaissance. Festival books served as both records of the festival and promotion of the image the festival-throwers wanted to cultivate. In this sense they’re not unlike the many books about Burning Man or Woodstock.
Madrid’s Prado Museum Will Spotlight Pioneering Duo of Female Renaissance Artists: Oooh, I wish I could go! I’m familiar with Fontana and Anguissola mostly through costuming because their portraits work as excellent visual sources, but both were truly revolutionary in their time: Fontana the first professional woman artist; Anguissola the court painter to Philip II.
See what I mean about the costume detail? “Portrait of a Young Lady” ca. 1580, Sofonisba Anguissola [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsThe 20 Strangest Things Revealed in Declassified CIA Documents: old news but new to me, the countdown includes some things you’d expect (UFOs, spies) but some things I certainly didn’t (Dr. Zhivago smuggled into Soviet Union, poltergeists*).
