Showing posts with label Weird News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weird News. Show all posts

Weird News: Mysterious Orange Goo Lands in Alaska

Thursday, August 11, 2011


Alaska is once again home to uncanny strangeness. During the past week, a curious orange goo began washing ashore in a remote village. So far, the substance matches no known natural or man made records. As any H.P. Lovecraft fan knows, mysterious slime heaved up from the sea plays an important role in several tales. "Dagon," "The Call of Cthulhu," and others echo the Providence writer's distaste and horror at what lurks beneath the waves.

Alaska's unique place in weird-dom continues to generate horror. Not unlike its surrounding wastes bordering the Arctic and Pacific territories. It's easy to see why lingering terrors from the sea in the great north continue to populate works by the likes of Laird Barron and Simon Strantzas. We are forcibly reminded, just once in awhile, that far greater monstrosities may lurk in the depths - often out of site, but never out of mind. We look to putrid, untraceable goo and shudder, with nearly the same intensity experienced when reading books such as Occultation and Beneath the Surface.

Remote, unknown regions are certain to provoke unspeakable chills. The human mind is already capable of conjuring the most vivid nightmares based on speculation and blackness alone. Still, imagine the greater horrors that will result in the coming years, a product of an Alaskan village and its token orange gift from hidden quarters.


-Grim Blogger


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Weird News: Medieval Codex Calixtinus Manuscript Vanishes

Tuesday, July 19, 2011


There are some books that are legally forbidden to bibliophiles, but that still doesn't stop some from trying. The recent theft of the Codex Calixtinus from a Spanish Cathedral is a fine example. Unlike one of Lovecraft's book thieving villains, who is after occult knowledge, profit is a more likely motive behind this crime. However, the disappearance of this archaic travel guide is still reminiscent of weird fiction's most chilling storylines involving captured books.


-Grim Blogger


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Weird News: Haunted Manor Endangered Without Bail Out

Tuesday, July 5, 2011


The United Kingdom has always been at the forefront of supernatural horror in literature and beyond. A uniquely British dedication to the strange is manifesting itself once again in the recent debate over the fate of Wymering Manor. Reportedly, without major repairs, this "most haunted" locale is structurally endangered.

This is why advocacy groups are beginning a push to save the manor with a combination of contributions from charities and local governments. The nearly thousand year old building is one of the few spectral places in the world that continues to have a fighting chance at immortality. Perhaps there are more than human actors at work. In a land of modern ghostly traditions begun by M.R. James with Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, and continued by powerhouses of otherworldly horror like Reggie Oliver, the haunted may reign forever.


-Grim Blogger


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Weird News: CDC Warns of Zombie Apocalypse

Wednesday, June 1, 2011


In a creative twist, the Centers for Disease Control recently referenced the possibility of a zombie apocalypse as a means to interest people in preparing for disasters. No, it isn't the makings of a scenario from World War Z. However, this odd attempt at using horror to raise public awareness is the first of its kind.

Perhaps we will one day see stranger horrors used to illustrate very real dangers. Lovecraft, for instance, contains plenty of warnings about cultists and nefarious old books. Algernon Blackwood's works might encourage travelers to stay away from isolated areas along the Danube, or the arctic wastes of Canada. In more recent times, the resounding lesson from authors like Thomas Ligotti and Robert Aickman is that nothing is as it seems.

Of course, if we ever see these warnings from any government, the body politic will have changed dramatically. Rather than worrying about bleak, dreamy realities or airborne monsters, folks in the immediate future will be far more bothered by visceral destruction. And who can blame them? At least horror is being put toward a good cause.



-Grim Blogger


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Weird News: House Calls Police for Help

Saturday, May 14, 2011


Self-conscious structures have been recurring figures in horror and science fiction alike. The famous haunted house often seems creepier when it's possessed by its own alien intelligence, rather than deceased spirits. Now, a leaky Massachussets house has dialed police in a voiceless call that helped authorities undercover its decrepit condition.

I'm also reminded of Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves. Anyone who has battled their way through this unconventional novel knows the bizarre house exhibits an uncanny sentience. Perhaps something like a real world Navidson Record isn't far off.


-Grim Blogger


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Weird News: Spiders Mummify Trees in Pakistan

Wednesday, April 20, 2011


Flood waters in Pakistan are responsible for this eerie set of photos. It seems they were taken after several million spiders fled the surging tide and ended up roosting in trees for an extended period. A mummified, otherworldly appearance is the result.

Aside from stirring up anxious prongs of arachnophobia, the sight is deeply reminiscent of weird horror. These scenes form a natural counterpart to "The Ash-Tree" by M.R. James (best enjoyed in S.T. Joshi's annotated edition, Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories). Had someone set the plants on fire, a hideous legend may have been born.


-Grim Blogger



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Weird News: Mystery Artifact Pre-Dating Egypt Goes on Public Display

Tuesday, March 29, 2011


The Starving of Saqqara is a curious sculpture, possibly pre-dating Egypt, that first surfaced in the 1940s. The sculpture shows two gaunt figures entwined, rendered in a ghostly whiteness. The piece is protected by Concordia University, which has sought a solution to the mystery for decades. This public exhibition is the latest attempt to drum up attention and support for giving the figures greater scrutiny.

While the likeliest origin lays in pre-Dynastic Egypt or outright forgery, more offbeat and chilling suggestions have arisen. Some believe the statue depicts Atlantean refugees. Human sacrifices, famine, and catastrophe in great antiquity draw further speculation as inspirations for the statue. The over-sized heads and gaunt frames are particularly unsettling.

Ancient civilizations coughing up the odd relic have frequently appeared in weird fiction, with horrific results. The Starving of Saqqara is a fear given form, showing what idols from Lovecraft's Atlantis, Lemuria, or other nameless cities might look like. Those moaning faces and unnatural bodies suggest a macabre secret best forgotten by time's merciful ignorance.

The mystery surrounding the statue is reminiscent of the untamed niche centered around Out of Place Artifacts. See Michael A. Cremo's book, Forbidden Archeology, for a full look at the strangeness surrounding humanity's deep past. Whether or not one dismisses Cremo's claims as pseudo-science, they're great exhibits for falling headfirst into a long tradition of weird, Fortean oddities.



-Grim Blogger



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Weird News: Canada's Goldstream River Turns Neon Green

Tuesday, January 25, 2011


Please keep your decadent exuberance on hold. While it appears that Canada's Goldstream River momentarily turned into an absinthe filled artery, as with most strange occurrences, the real world explanation is far less extraordinary. It seems some pranksters slipped dye into the river, resulting in a fleeting glimpse of the bizarre and miraculous.


-Grim Blogger


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Weird News: Over 1000 Birds Fall Dead from the Sky in Arkansas

Sunday, January 9, 2011


This sounds like a scene with real life apocalyptic imagery. Over a thousand dead birds plummeting from the sky over a small area in Arkansas may well qualify as 2011's first anti-miracle - an event that seems supernaturally crafted and darkly ominous. While the cause will probably turn out to an awesome quirk of nature or a man made accident, the story is sure to inspire anxious chills because it actually happened.



-Grim Blogger


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Weird News: Atlantis Re-Discovered in the Persian Gulf?

Friday, December 17, 2010


Weird fiction has long been fixated on lost cities and fallen civilizations. Whether they existed only in dreams or some forgotten cycle of human history, ghostly and mysterious relics have helped bolster the critical atmospheric component in many tales. In fact, weirdscribes are actually tapping into legendary archetypes that seem almost programmed into our minds--the product of being a species unable to pinpoint its origins.

H.P. Lovecraft was especially fond of weaving Atlantis and Lemuria into the Cthulhu Mythos cycle. Today, he would no doubt have been fascinated to learn about the many speculative sites for lost Atlantis, including this promising find in the Persian Gulf:


-Grim Blogger


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Weird News: CERN Proof of Extra Dimensions Likely

Thursday, December 2, 2010


From sci-fi to weird fiction, the discovery of other dimensions never seems to bode well for mankind. H.P. Lovecraft's horrors, many of them arguably multi-dimensional creatures, are a menace to humanity often just by their existential differences with us. CERN's meddling in exotic particles, other dimensions, and science well over the heads of the unwashed masses may one day provide more than extra-dimensional evidence. While Cthulhu and his cohorts won't be tearing through the CERN facilities in Geneva anytime soon, studying other dimensions could render our universe one shade darker than it was already made by shattering our egos with heliocentrism and evolution. Rather, Lovecraft's speculations about reality and other orders of existence may reign correct in a way no one wants to imagine. Or, at least, this is the ultimate Lovecraftian daydream, where fiction is fact.


-Grim Blogger


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Weird News: Dinosaur Skull Embedded in Church

Friday, November 12, 2010


The discovery of a dinosaur's skull embedded in an old Italian church's marble balustrade suggests many strange connotations. While in practice there's probably nothing sinister going on, even thinking about the legions of worshipers, who must have wondered about the dragon-like phantom in their temple over the centuries, leaves a chill down one's back. This discovery is a legend weaver, and not just in the conventional scientifically awesome sense. The odd intersection of Medieval atmosphere, prehistoric monster, and religion at work here aligns well with weird fiction's finer elements. Who would dare suggest the strangest hauntings are confined to the pages of ghost stories?


-Grim Blogger


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Weird News: Ancient Yemeni Crypt Uncovered

Wednesday, October 27, 2010


Tucked away somewhere in Yemen, not far from the otherworldly sites of Irem and a city whose name is lost to history, comes this magnificent find. The numerous discoveries uncovered in the Middle East proves that H.P. Lovecraft was a better archeological speculator than anyone ever knew. Had he been in a different mindset, he might have concentrated more of his Mythos and Dunsany driven pieces in other parts of the ancient world: Roman Europa, China, or Australia. But none of these places would have had coughed up the archeological discoveries in recent decades that seem nearly Lovecraftian in nature. In the end, Lovecraft had a keen historical sense, and a futurist's ability to foresee what might come later.

All that's missing at this point (or is perhaps covered up by the Powers That Be) is news about finding a tattered book bound in human skin in these ruins. Or a translation of the alien looking scripts that adorn these walls, which might contain names like Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, Hastur, or Dagon.


-Grim Blogger


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Weird News: Bizarre Bone Skipper Fly Rises from Dead

Friday, October 15, 2010


A strange insect that feasts on rotting bone marrow has returned to Europe for the first time in decades. The elusive "Bone Skipper" was thought to be extinct. It's macabre nature, strange form, and glow in the dark head make it a perfectly reasonable candidate for weird zoology. That might be said about most insects, which have always exuded a foreign aura with their anti-anthropomorphic forms and habits, but doubly so for creatures like this, which are likely to turn the hardiest of stomachs. Personally, I'm just thankful little demons don't go after humans.


-Grim Blogger


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Weird News: Sacrificial Murder Examined in Indian Girl's Death

Saturday, October 2, 2010


The horribly ubiquitous legacy of human sacrifice continues to haunt our heads in certain grisly cases. With this dead Indian girl, actual sacrificial involvement sounds fairly dubious. However, even the slim chance that some dark spiritual force impelled her ritual murder is enough to torment the imagination. No matter how much time elapses, and how uncommon malevolent sorcery seems, we continue to see dark cults and their devotees everywhere...


-Grim Blogger


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Weird News: Ghost Train Seeker Killed By Real Train

Tuesday, September 14, 2010


This recent tale out of North Carolina offers more cautionary advice on the dangers of "ghost hunting." It also contains a slightly Grabinskian twist. In an age where living spirits remain interesting in certain circles, hearing about ghostly machines and inorganic things is less common. However, this tragic incident relates that the spectral object is far from dead, and may still offer doom to those who seek it out.



-Grim Blogger


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Weird News: Hunt for Stolen Relics Uncovers Secret Tomb in Turkey

Thursday, August 26, 2010


Forgotten tombs and treasure troves have long been a staple of antiquarian discoveries in weird fiction. Of course, the treasures are usually accompanied by some terrible knowledge or lost horror. It's no surprise these things have a loose basis in fact. Unsought excavations are as rare as they come, but remarkable in their ability to inspire the imagination when they do crop up.

-Grim Blogger


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Weird News: Man Kills Dog He Believed Was Satan

Saturday, August 14, 2010


This article is an unsettling and all too real example of the roads madness can lead down. A little bit removed from reality and the story becomes a nucleic episode with many potential weird connotations...not to mention campy ones. Although it's not entirely new to weird fiction or film, the devilish canine may have some lingering possibilities, as long as it's done right.


-Grim Blogger  


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Weird News: Corpse Found at Closed Funeral Home

Wednesday, August 4, 2010


This story isn't particularly outlandish, but it does illustrate the careless treatment that sometimes attends the dead. More than a few popular legends and ghostly tales have the origins of their strange phenomena in underhanded doings against corpses, or unredeemed remains. Then there's always the possibility of hidden bodies just waiting for a fearful and shocking discovery. The world is a graveyard.


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Weird News: Russian Citizen Requests Exorcism for Mayor

Thursday, July 22, 2010


A Russian's desire for her town's mayor to undergo exorcism is an especially bizarre intersection of politics and the supernatural. Dismiss her as eccentric, if you must. You wouldn't be wrong. But don't expect this to be an isolated incident. The economic hard times means a global rise in "off with their heads!" sentiment, which means a significant minority may start seeing their own rulers as demon employed miscreants.

-Grim Blogger


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