Archive for January 2016

Bigfoot of Harrison County: Stonish Giant

January 27, 2016

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The fourth season of Mountain Monsters opened with the team in pursuit of the Stonish Giant in Harrison County, Ohio.  Another Bigfoot clone, the Giant stands at a height of nine to ten feet, and weighs in at around 1,000 lbs. First seen by Native Americans in the 1500’s, the Iroquois found the coat of the giant impervious to their arrows; it seems he rolls around in the clay and such, this layering adding resistance to primitive weapons.

Following their familiar formula, the team interviewed an eyewitness, John, who had an encounter while hunting deer.  The ground shook under the weight of the creature, and he heard a cry emitted that combined a roar and a snarl.  The hunter later saw tracks following the encounter, unusual in that one of the legs appeared to be dragging to a degree.  In their first night’s investigation, the team saw broken off trees, found a 22″ footprint, and thought that they caught a glimpse of the creature.  They also found a “tree structure,” and an area where the Bigfoot was thought to have bedded down.  

The next day, trap maker Willy and “Wild Bill” constructed a super-sized snare trap which would later be baited with road-killed deer.  A taxidermist, Russ, was interviewed who related an encounter of a friend who was approached by the Bigfoot from behind and supposedly hit him with a shot.  Going to that site, the team found blood in the vicinity on vegetation, and assumed that the Bigfoot had indeed been wounded, which explained the apparent dragging evidenced by one foot on tracks earlier seen.  

In the final night’s hunt, the team split into two components with the intent of driving the wounded Stonish Giant towards their trap.  Blood was found in several locations, as was the slug apparently dislodged from the creature’s wound; growls were also heard.  While in pursuit, the team heard gunshots ahead of them; another group was apparently poaching their Bigfoot!  Blurred images were presented of at least four men dragging something off in a tarp, and hastily leaving in a truck.  Arriving at that area, the AIMS team found yet more blood, and deduced that the other armed group in advance of them had nailed the Stonish Giant but good, and made off with the body.  They were not amused…

…and who could blame them?  Don’t ‘ya just hate it when someone absconds with a rare and disputed cryptic animal that you’ve been chasing?!

Mulder Returns!

January 25, 2016

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I was a big X-Files fan in the 1990’s, and somewhere I still have an action figurine of David Duchovny as Fox Mulder, one of my few heroes…and so almost nothing could be better for me than when I learned that half a dozen new episodes of the show were being made, complete with many members of the original cast!  The previews looked promising and true to the spirit of the original show.  I was more than ready for this; it was the Holy Grail of paranormal television.

So primed and ready, I tuned to FOX at the listed time expecting to see Fox,  and got…a football post-game show!  It was a cruel thing to see jocks celebrating themselves when you’ve gone so many years without a Mulder fix.  No doubt this was some kind of government conspiracy.  Fortunately the DVR and “On Demand” gods were there, and I was able to watch the whole glorious episode later.

The first episode was heavy on exposition and the series mythology, beginning with Mulder’s cerebral, analytical monotone voice and flashing back to the seminal Roswell UFO incident, with the crash gloriously depicted.  Since the series last ended, Mulder has been living a low profile life while his partner, Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) has been aiding in the surgical creation of ears for earless children.  The duo is reunited by a wealthy arch conservative talk show conspiracy adherent (Tad O’Malley), and Mulder appears to have mastered the scruffy cool look to perfection.  From there, things get twisted and complicated, with alien technologies, genetic manipulations, and unspeakable dark conspiracies thrown into the mix.

Some episodes after the second will focus less on the confusing and mysterious X-Files mythology, with some stand-alone episodes presented that will follow the popular “Monster of the Week” format during which the series was at its most enjoyable.  We will apparently, however, be getting visits from such iconic series figures as the Cigarette Smoking Man and The Lone Gunmen, who had a brief unsuccessful spin-off show of their own once upon a time.

All in all, the limited revival series is worthy, and makes us want to put on suits, grab large flashlights, and follow conspiracies and monsters wherever they may lead, for The Truth is Out There…

America’s Best Eyeglasses Owl…

January 24, 2016


Owls have always had a popular following, representing as they do wisdom, knowledge, and learning.  Their popularity may have been further bolstered by their use in the Harry Potter books and movies.  

Recently an articulate and fine specimen has emerged as a spokesman for the America’s Best Eyeglasses line, suitably bespectacled and able to model different frames simply by an uncanny rotation of his head. The owl himself is both wise and extraordinarily expressive, with a lot of eye and other facial movement. He is further able to cast the hapless human into mimicking the usual owl role, reducing them to single-word utterances of “who?” as he elaborates on virtues of the eyewear company.

If Harry Potter had an owl of this caliber at his side, it might have been easier for him to take on Voldemort…

Wrath of the Turkey…

January 12, 2016

 In another Farmers Insurance commercial, we are shown the revenge of the “proud bird with the golden tail,” the long-suffering and oft disrespected turkey.  A “Meaty’s Butcher Shop” truck manned by a single hapless guy is making its way down the road when a turkey appears in its path, causing the driver to veer off the road and into a tree. The middle-aged gent then regards his passenger seat, where he be holds…a turkey!  The driver screams at the turkey, who gobbles loudly at him…

…payback, they say, is hell.  We then cut to an exterior shot of the disabled truck, with a mob of turkeys descending on it.  There is strength in numbers, and the delivery truck rocks from side to side as the turkeys administer their own brand of justice to one of their oppressors.  It’s reminiscent of a scene in the first Jurassic Park  movie where a throng of diminutive dinosaurs overwhelm and dispense with an especially obnoxious character in his vehicle.

We then cut to a scene with the unflappable J.K. Simmons escorting a client through their extensive Hall of Claims, where we gaze with them upon a much-mangled apron, last worn by the ill-fated delivery driver.  Farmers Insurance has seen just about everything, we are reminded, so they can insure against anything, including “Turkey Jerks…” 

Farmers Insurance: Stag Pool Party!

January 3, 2016

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Everyone knows that there are times when guys just need to be around the company of other guys so that they don’t have to worry about pleasing the does all of the time.  Then instead of talking about “relationships” and “feelings,” we can just hang out, overeat, watch “guy” movies, and I dunno, maybe play some table tennis…

…and so it is that a recent Farmers Insurance commercial takes us to a genuine stag pool party, namely one attended by stags.  They’re having a wild time of it, too, with loud music and commotion heard while the pool lights are off.  When the floodlights come on, however, all of the stags are frozen in place, the old “deer in the headlights” thing. The lights off/lights on sequence repeats several times, but each time the lights come on, there are subtle changes in the scenario, primary among which is that there are more and more stags actually in the pool!

The Farmers Insurance spokesman (J.K. Simmons) explains in their Hall of Claims that since they’ve seen about everything, they can insure just about anything…including, apparently, an out-of-bounds party for some not-so-timid woodlands creatures.  Party on, boys!