Ben Emlyn-Jones and Rin Michaelis 16

 

I have been interviewed again by Rin Michaelis on her video channel: https://rumble.com/v61sz3w-10-disney-villains-that-would-be-impossible-to-create-today.html.
See here for the condensed YouTube version: (coming soon).
Subjects discussed include: Disney villains, antagonist or antihero?, childhood movie memories and much much more.
See here for my previous appearance on Rin's channel: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2024/09/ben-emlyn-jones-and-rin-michaelis-15.html.
See here for Rin's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RinMichaelis/featured.
And her Rumble channel: https://rumble.com/user/RinMichaelis.
And her Twitter: https://twitter.com/RINMichaelis.

Ben Emlyn-Jones on the Paranormal Peep Show 25

 

I have been on the Paranormal Peep Show again. This programme is a special mulit-feature show for Christmas 2024. Andrew Chaplin co-hosts.
See here for the audio version: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/the-paranormal-peep-show-night-crawlers-and-the-nottinghamshire-roswell-crash--63362003.
And here for the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAIrsh-HZxs.
See here for my previous appearance on the Paranormal Peep Show: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2024/11/ben-emlyn-jones-on-paranormal-peep-show.html.

The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

 

See here for essential background: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2024/09/the-3-body-problem-book.html.
Cixin Liu's sequel to 3 Body Problem was published in 2008 and has a different English translator, Joel Martinsen. The Dark Forest or 黑暗森林 carries on from where the last book left off and its beginning is adapted in the current Netflix TV series. The Wallfacer project is launched as an attempt to beat the sophons the only way anybody knows how. The main character is a rather immature and irresponsible young scientist called Luo Ji yet he is chosen for the project because the Trisolarans have mentioned him personally. Unfortunately he simply exploits his lavish position, at one point spending a fortune on an antique barrel of beverage brought up from an ancient shipwreck. The centuries old booze is undrinkable, as you would expect after all that time, but he doesn't care and simply pours it away. The wallfacers are confronted by ETO agents called "Wallbreakers", but Luo Ji tries to escape them and join his family in the future by going into suspended animation, called "hibernation", like in Arthur C Clarke's works, to be revived centuries later, closer to the time of the Trisolarans' arrival. This is a comment plot device of science fiction in order to keep using the same characters over a long period of time. In the future there is a new faction called "escapists" who want to get off the earth in spaceships until the Trisolarans have come and gone. There are also characters seeking transhumanism. My hopes were high when I picked up this book, because the first one was so good; but in this sequel the story loses almost all its energy. It turns into a rather cheap kind of Star Trek. I found myself zoning out as I was reading. I forgot who each the characters were and had to keep flicking back to remember. In fact, I've decided not to read the last novel of the trilogy, Death's End. I might catch any TV adaptations instead.

Sean David Morton Dies

 

I'm very sorry to report that Sean David Morton has passed away. This was after an illness that lasted several years. Sean was an accomplished figure in the alternative media. He was a guest on the HPANWO Show back in 2016, see: https://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.com/2016/07/programme-196-podcast-alien-interview-20.html. He also assisted me with research into this article: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2015/01/area-51-alien-interview-new-research.html. I first came across him in the Area 51- The Alien Interview documentary, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvamS6X5l2I. Sean was born in Texas USA in 1959. He was introduced to alternative ideas at a young age because his mother was an alternative health therapist. Sean wrote a number of books including Area 51- Nightmare in Dreamland. He presented numerous films and TV shows including Ancient Aliens, Sightings and Apocalypse According to Doris. See: https://www.strangeuniverseradio.com. He will be sadly missed. His wife Melissa and all his other family and friends have my deepest condolences. Rest in Peace, Sean.

The Program

 

James Fox' new documentary, The Program (sic), is one of the most hotly anticipated new movies in present day UFOlogy, and that's in quite a crowded market. It was a very troubled production. The Anglo-American film maker has had to wait a long time before releasing his new and updated report on the UFO scene because a previous distributor pulled the rug out. That will no doubt have allowed him to add new scenes, so I'm sure the time was not wasted. A lot has changed in the world, especially the United States, in the intervening period, see: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2021/01/donald-trump-portal.html. The film is not cheap, £15 to buy on Amazon UK. Once again there is no rental option. Is it worth it? The style is similar to James' other productions, see background links below. There are some very well composed time-lapse vignettes. It begins with a recap of the history behind the current situation and includes interviews with people who haven't yet spoken out about it, like Andre Carson. The narrative moves on to interviews with a series of people who claim to have insider information on the UAP programme; some speaking out anonymously. However a few are quite prepared to talk openly in a lit location and giving their full identity, like Lenval Logan, somebody I had not heard of before. Some witnesses are more famous and often more controversial, like Jason Sands; although his story sounds like many other close encounters and it is accompanied by newly released footage. Some participants are very persuasive; Sarah Gamm, in particular, impressed me with her testimony. There is one scene where she gives a long pause before answering a question and there is a close-up of her facial expression that I sense is sincere. Compare that with this very contrived piece of theatre: https://youtu.be/7ByWCFX4ZQs?si=QodDgckduvT-6Hj1&t=2759. One interviewee goes to a long way to protect his privacy. He is dubbed "Naval X", in the same pattern as the Brazilian "Military X" in Moment of Contact.

The Program delves into a quite old but very important piece of UFO Disclosure history, the case of Gary McKinnon. It includes some new and often quite shocking information about Gary's case regarding his personal experience. See here for my own coverage: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2012/10/gary-mckinnon-free-man.html. James Fox also investigates the Calvine UFO incident, the "photograph of the century". He interviews Dr David Clarke, Nick Pope (of course!) and Craig Lindsay. Fox believes he has found the exact location the photo was taken; this has always been a big mystery. In one scene Fox confronts Dr Clarke over the same conundrum I had with him, that "Folklore man" had ruled out a non-human origin for the object. Clarke's response was not included in the film. See here for background: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2024/06/would-real-kevin-russell-please-stand-up.html. James includes his own reportage of his presence at the recent NASA press conference, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2023/09/new-nasa-press-conference.html. The Program is a good summary and introduction to the modern Disclosure discourse and "New UFOlogy". A lot of it I'm already familiar with, because I'm such an enthusiast that little escapes my attention; but it contains some information I had never heard of before and some intriguing interviews with people who have hitherto remained silent. Is it worth the fifteen quid? Although it is less groundbreaking than Moment of Contact I would still say yes.
See here for background: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2020/02/ufo-disclosure-portal.html.
And: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2022/11/moment-of-contact-watch-party-review.html.

Ben Emlyn-Jones and The Crafty Nihilist 4

I have been featured on a livestream by The Crafty Nihilist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9CQklxG4aw.

An informal panel featuring myself talking to The Crafty Nihilist. We were joined on the air by our friend "Secret Sally". Unlike previous livestreams we were all physically in The Crafty Nihilist's studio.

See here for my previous appearance on the Crafty Nihilist's channel: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2024/10/ben-emlyn-jones-and-crafty-nihilist-3.html.

Skullduggery

 

I can't remember who recommended me the film Skullduggery, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066384/, but they said it would suit me. The subject matter does, but it was very badly executed. I don't know if this is a pattern, but it is based on a French novel, like Planet of the Apes, another clanger. Do French novels always adapt into bad English movies? The lead is played by Burt Reynolds, normally one of my favourite actors. I know him primarily for his series of outstanding comedy road movies directed by Hal Needham such as Cannonball Run and Smokey and the Bandit. His character in this film really makes no sense. Well, it seems to split into two halfway through the film. He is, on the one hand, a classic 60's alpha male; conventionally good-looking, pragmatic, single-minded and materialistic. He and his friend have a plan to make their fortune mining a mineral in Papua New Guinea for use in making televisions; a reference to third world commodity exploitation in the western luxury goods industry. Indeed, Skullduggery tries in vain to become an early form of eco-fiction; a proto-Avatar. This falls flat on its face because of the failure to make Reynolds' character credible. It's almost inevitable that he would end up in the love interest subplot, a must for all films of that era; but his relationship with the leading lady, played by Susan Clark, is bootstrapped very badly into the narrative. They seem poorly matched as a couple with zero chemistry. She plays a scientist studying the "Tropies", a species of cryptid primate living in the middle of the island's dense forest. Reynolds and his mate decide to use Tropi slaves on their mining operation as unpaid labour. For a while it looks like the story is blending with my own novel Rockall, see: https://hpanwo-bb.blogspot.com/2009/02/rockall-chapter-1.html. So where is the Dill Gibson? The answer is almost unbelievable; Reynolds' character becomes the Dill Gibson. It appears even the film makers themselves seem to realize how inadequate their composition is because in one scene Clark says to Reynolds "I never knew you were the bleeding heart type." Nor did anybody else, especially this viewer. There is no process or development explaining Reynolds' transformation. Ideally that role should have been the domain of another character, but no such character was ever written. So when Reynolds decides on the spot that he is no longer the hard-headed entrepreneur and is instead a crusading humanitarian conservationist, he ends up in court accused of murder when one of the Tropies dies. The essence of the trial is whether the Tropies are human or not. This could have been a profound storyline, exploring what it means to be human in a deep spiritual sense, but instead it all came down to whether they were fertile with humans and whether they had a spoken language etc. What a missed opportunity Skullduggery is. The title is also very odd; and it's spelled differently from the similar word "skulduggery". I'm not sure why it was chosen, possibly because skulls appear a lot in the film.
(Apologies for the current lack of activity on HPANWO Voice. I've not had time to update it.)