Blog Archives

Review of "Our Gods Wear Spandex" (Part 2)

8/22/2014

I could have planned this better. I should have started this review on Wednesday to do it in three parts. But since Ancient Aliens tonight plans an episode on “Aliens and Superheroes,” I will take advantage of what author Christopher Loring Knowles, following Jung, refers to as “meaningful coincidence” (synchronicity) to finish my review of Our Gods Wear Spandex today, despite the length of the resulting review.

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Review of "Our Gods Wear Spandex" (Part 1)

8/21/2014

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After Christopher Loring Knowles published his claims about the secret stratum of occult knowledge he believes H. P. Lovecraft possesses, Knowles accused me (or as he calls me, “Jason ‘It’s All About Me! Me!’ Colavito”) of failing to address his assertions on the evidence. Therefore, I thought it might be an interesting exercise to take a look at Knowles’s most famous work, Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes (Weiser Books, 2007). The subject of the volume is the influence of ancient mythology and Victorian occultism on comic book characters, and it covers many of the same streams of popular culture that I discussed in my earlier book, The Cult of Alien Gods (2005).

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Wednesday Grab-Bag: Nazis, Lovecraft, UFOs, and More!

8/20/2014

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I’m feeling a bit uninspired today, so I’ll share a grab-bag of small stories I haven’t figured out how to spin into something more substantive.

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Osarsiph and the Exodus

8/19/2014

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Here’s an interesting passage I came across in doing some research today. In Against Apion 1.26, Flavius Josephus provides the following (very) lengthy quotation from the Egyptian priest Manetho, who writes of an incident that some of suggested reflects the Egyptian version of the Exodus story. I hadn’t read this before, and it’s an interesting tale.

Since the Weebly block quote function puts everything in italics, I’m going to present it as a chunk of text so it’s easier to read. I pick up the story from William Whiston’s translation right after the pharaoh Amenophis orders all of the lepers of Egypt to work in the quarries.

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Science Channel Giant "Expert" Bruce Fenton Claims Psychic Time Travel Powers, Grey Alien in His House

8/18/2014

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Editor's note: This piece has been edited to incorporate clarifications requested by Bruce Fenton in the comments below.

I used to wonder whether Prometheus Entertainment would try to enforce its trademark on the name Ancient Aliens, but it seems increasingly clear that they have never tried. Ancient Aliens guest Mike Bara has a line of Ancient Aliens on… books that are not endorsed by the company and continue to come out even when he’s working for competing TV shows. And Bruce Fenton published Ancient Aliens in Australia, whose cover apes the TV show’s title card in design and color scheme. If I were an attorney, I’d probably start suggesting that the term “Ancient Aliens” has become a generic synonym for ancient astronauts.

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Watch My New YouTube Video About Erich von Daniken's Most Racist Lines

8/17/2014

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Since I’ve written so much this week, today I’ve decided to go in a different direction. Please enjoy my latest YouTube video, which puts to music some of Erich von Däniken’s most racist statements, taken verbatim from his book Signs of the Gods. Most of this will be familiar to regular readers, but I hope you enjoy the clip anyway. It’s a dry run for what I hope will be a much more important video later this year—of which, details to come at another time!

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Review of In Search of Aliens S01E04 "The Roswell Rock"

8/16/2014

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Last month the Roswell Record incorrectly reported that a small stone found by Robert Ridge in December 2004 eleven miles from the supposed 1947 flying saucer crash site in New Mexico would be featured on Ancient Aliens this month. Instead, the object, known since 2008 as the “Roswell Rock,” is the focus for this episode of In Search of Aliens, S01E04 “The Roswell Rock.” The small stone is carved in low relief with a layered image composed of a background of a circle surrounding a square atop and overlapping which are carved two smaller circles each inscribed with a crescent and a circle.

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Review of Ancient Aliens S07E04 "Alien Encounters"

8/15/2014

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Since the first three episodes of this season of Ancient Aliens has had very little to do with anything ancient or extraterrestrial, it seems that the producers decided on a course correction for episode four. S07E04 “Alien Encounters” takes us back to a more “classic” form of ancient astronautics, one in which any god is necessarily an alien, with the exception of Jesus, and UFOs are found anywhere and everywhere lights shine in darkness. In other words, this is still more repetition of what we’ve heard many times before.

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New Book Claims Alexander the Great Buried in Kaaba

8/15/2014

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Later today is the one-two punch of Ancient Aliens and In Search of Aliens, so I’m going to make a short entry for now in anticipation of the much longer review of Ancient Aliens to go up later. I’ll begin by sharing some news about something I’m sure will never happen. Last night a paranormal-themed internet radio show asked me to fill in on tonight’s episode for Jason Martell of Ancient Aliens, who canceled yesterday afternoon. I declined due to the short notice, but the show seemed interested in having a debate between Martell and me next month. I can’t imagine that will ever actually come to pass, especially not after Martell threatened to sue me last year and directed his fans to send me hate mail, leading to a death threat. But we’ll see…

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A Thursday Grab Bag of Thoughts on Cable TV Shows

8/14/2014

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Let’s start today by passing along a bit of news. America Unearthed host Scott Wolter visited Westford, Massachusetts with a crew from Committee Films to shoot a segment for the upcoming season of his television show. According to the Westford Eagle, which incorrectly identified his show (twice!) as airing on the Discovery Channel and the History Channel (it airs on H2), Wolter was in town last week to observe a newly discovered marking on the stone housing the Westford Knight.

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