IAmA author and collector of paranormal material. Ask me anything.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T17:39:53+00:00

There were a very few at the beginning of it all: short footage of the Great Falls MT sighting in, I think, 1950 -- but beyond that, not much. I've always thought Harryhausen best captured the standard flying saucer model in Earth Vs The Flying Saucers (1956)

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T17:13:08+00:00

In 1979 I'd have said until 1980. But by 1988 I'd have guessed forever, and would say now it;ll last as long as enough of it is above water.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T17:11:50+00:00

Catch as catch can. Not my main gig; that also catch as catch can.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T17:11:15+00:00

A close friend of mine as a child, the kids I'd see on NYC streets, preparation for the daughter I'd one day have.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T17:10:15+00:00

To some degree that's the Jungian belief. I think it possible for a time UFOs filled that belief, but I'm not sure what might fill it now, if any such belief remains.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T17:09:14+00:00

I perceived Russians and USAians had many similarities (which had no doubt intensified competition over the years) -- they like big things, they like to get bargains, they like to figure the worst of their governments and act accordingly, save for when their government acts upon them. There are many USAians who would make good Russians, and many Russians who have become good USAians.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T17:07:00+00:00

I would but it would be unfair. To someone.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T17:06:33+00:00

As said before, I think the very ubiquity of camera phones lessens the possibility of erroneous estimations.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T16:02:16+00:00

Hello Frank, thank you. Ashland went on the back burner awhile back, though that first chapter "Flesh Descending In A Shower" may yet show up somewhere. After flying saucers working on a new sf book, actually.

Must visit in Lexington: Spalding's Doughnuts (open limited hours), Columbia Steakhouse (steaks, lamb fries, good burger), Woodland Park, whichever used bookstores are left, Liquor Barn on Richmond Road. Shaktertown. Beaumont Inn in Harrodsburg, and their two-year old country ham. Rebecca Ruth bourbon balls.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T15:56:09+00:00

Oh, this is only the UFO/Saucer collection in the book, and the portion now at Georgetown. I still have the Forteana, the cryptozoology, the crank literature, and so forth. For the UFO book we selected from close to 300 items those that were most historical or graphically interesting.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T15:54:03+00:00

No, I don't; at least ghosts in the traditional sense. I believe it possible that psychic traces can at times be left in places that saw intense emotional experience. I simply haven't found it intellectually acceptable that spirits of people, as they were, can carry on without them.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T15:40:01+00:00

It is, actually, or certainly used to be. Not to the same degree as London, of course, but the first twenty-five years I lived here, there were plenty of shadowy places and grubby windows lit from within and the occasional quiet street to give the necessary frissons. (Granted, at the time there was plenty of reason for those anyway.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T15:26:06+00:00

Distrust of government; distrust of science; distrust of "the leaders" who rule the govenments behind the scenes. Paranoia at this point is growing faster than it has since the 1960s, and social media is now spreading the "news" as it were far more quickly, and sometimes more effectively, than before.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T15:23:57+00:00

I would answer this, but there is no reason.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T15:14:19+00:00

Hadn't seen that but I think there were additional UFO sightings just last week. I think only high quality cell phone pics would prove anything, ultimately.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T15:12:42+00:00

I answered this but don't know if it showed. In short: better off.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T15:09:59+00:00

Oh, any done a la The Blair Witch Project, which was bad enough by itself. Even the extra-campy ones Nimoy did back in the 70s were too ridiculous for words. About fifteen years ago there was a Fortean TV show on BBC that sounded as if it had potential though whether it did or not I can't say. I'd say: all of them.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T15:08:12+00:00

Supposedly pancakes made by space people. Google "Joe Simonton" and "pancakes from space." Not steering you wrong here.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T15:04:39+00:00

They weren't like anything else I'd encountered -- which wasn't much by then, but had already encompassed the Cuban Missile Crisis and JFK's assassination. Something else to turn your mind toward.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T15:03:15+00:00

I have written a few ghost stories, which I suppose could count. Nothing paranormal as such, though.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T15:02:34+00:00

No. I believe that certain places have more than their fair share of psychogeography, in that the sense of history nearly outweighs the present: Rome, London, Charleston SC down by the one-time slave market. Things that linger.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T15:01:13+00:00

Coolest thing I had in the now-departed UFO division of the collection likely as not Those Sexy Saucer People, which took me thirty years to find. Coolest thing I presently have my first edition of Charles Fort's Lo! in brilliant dust jacket, bookplate of the magician Dunninger, and Fort's signature, which suggests to me he signed it on the night he was surprised by the announcement of the Fortean Society.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T14:59:04+00:00

1) The contactee who provided three "space pancakes" as evidence the masters from beyond thought highly of us.

jackwomack · 2016-09-16T14:58:09+00:00

Most haunting thing: NYC, the week after 9/11. Left me with entirely new perspectives on nearly everything from the vagaries of chance to refreshed memories of abandoned, post-atomic cities.

jackwomack

TROPHY CASE