Tag: guest contributor

Myersvision: Consider if You Will…

The Portly Politico10 Comments

Audre Myers just can’t resist the alluring song of the Bigfoot, and keeps coming back to drink at the well of grainy video footage and armchair cryptozoological speculation.  As she quaffs away, we benefit from her insights in the form of thoughtful analyses of our big hairy friend.

What I still can’t get over is the lack of compelling, clear footage of Bigfoot.  There’s always some post hoc rationalization for why the video doesn’t work (one of the more infamous examples I recall is the gentleman who had a branch in front of his trail cam, and the labored explanation that the infrared light emitted from it washed out the image).  Some of these videos of alleged sightings are so blurry, it seems that the power of suggestion is at play more than clear examination.  We want to see a Bigfoot, so we see one.  Clever YouTubers will draw a conical outline around the fuzzy form and proclaim, “Ah ha!  See!  It must be Bigfoot because it has a head shaped like a cone!”  Maybe it’s just Dan Aykroyd reprising his role in Coneheads (1993).  Now you’ll start seeing him when you watch this blurry footage.

This video, however, seems different.  Whatever the creature is, it is massive.

I’ll let Audre explain it from here:

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Myersivsion: From Years Gone By

The Portly Politico5 Comments

What is the connection between Bigfoot and the Shroud of Turin?  Not much, except both involve investigating the mysteries of the science and faith, the two intertwining to reveal a larger picture.

At least, that is my takeaway from this excellent piece from Audre Myers.  In an attempt to salvage my blog’s reputation, Audre earlier this week demurred from submitting any more Bigfoot-related content, but the siren song of the hairy lug is too hard to resist.

As always, Audre approaches the subject with tenderness, curiosity, and analytical thinking.  She also notes that belief in Bigfoot is largely optional and up to you to decide, but belief in Jesus Christ is paramount.  If we can believe in the former, we must believe in the latter.

With that, here is Audre with “From Years Gone By”:

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Myersvision: A Possible Language

The Portly Politico4 Comments

Audre Myers has done real yeowoman’s work in the realm of “sane, evidence-based Bigfoot belief.”  There are a lot of cranks out there, as Audre would be the first to admit, but she brings much-needed rationality to the study of Bigfoot, all while retaining her childlike sense of wonder.

Recordings of Bigfoot abound, but beyond mere yelps and screeches, the creatures apparently possess language.  This ability makes sense, as I intuit at some gut level that, if Bigfoot does exist, he is not merely a woodland ape, but something containing intelligence.  It might not be human intelligence, but it is intelligence nonetheless.

Audre breaks down their language—called “Samari”—in this cogent post.  Perhaps in addition to finding the Bigfoot, we might also find his Rosetta Stone, unlocking the language of another intelligent species.

With that, here is Audre on the language of the Bigfoot:

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Monday Morning Movie Review: Ponty’s Top Ten Best Films: #1: The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

The Portly Politico9 Comments

Here we are—the end of the long countdown of best films of all time.  Ponty delivers, as always, with his clear, detailed analysis.

Boy, did he pick a great film.  This flick was a perennial favorite on cable television in the late 1990s and early 2000s.  You can pick up with the story pretty much anywhere and it is gripping.

I won’t dilute Ponty’s review further with my commentary.  He has done it so well, I cannot add anything of additional value.

With that—and at long last!—here’s Ponty’s pick:

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Myersvision: A Very Good Discussion

The Portly Politico2 Comments

March Bigftoot Madness marches on with another post about our favorite, secretive lug.  Thanks to Audre Myers for sticking hot on the big guy’s trail.

Audre has studied hundreds—maybe thousands—of Bigfootage on YouTube, and seems to have a discerning eye for what could be real and what’s fake.  The realm of Bigfoot is a world awash in fakery and grifters, which does much to discredit the study of this potential creature.

Audre cuts through the noise well, and while I’m still not convinced—and it may very well take (God Forbid) a Bigfoot corpse to convince most folks—she continues to make a compelling case for his existence:

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Myersvision: Structures

The Portly Politico3 Comments

A quick blurb before Audre’s intriguing post:  I’ve released my second book, Arizonan Sojourn, South Carolinian Dreams: And Other Adventures.  It’s a collection of travel essays I’ve accumulated over the last four years, and it’s available now on Amazon.

Here’s where you can pick it up:

Pick up a copy today!  Even sharing the above links is a huge help.

Thank you for your support!

—TPP

***

She’s shown us the books and the videos, and I’ve shown you the Nanoblock build.  Now it’s time to consider what Bigfoot builds.

Prior to Audre Myers submitting this post, I had no idea that Bigfoots allegedly build unique “structures.”  I have no idea what the significance of these structure are, and I’m skeptical—they seem like they could easily be the result of thunderbolts or other creatures smashing through the forests—but I’m open to the idea that they are the result of a hairy intelligence with massive feet.

Audre presents the evidence.  Take a look, and leave a comment.  Are these the structures of an intelligent creature?  Are they elaborate hoaxes?  Or the result of natural phenomena?  Maybe it’s something other than Bigfoot altogether—gulp!

With that, here is Audre’s examination of Bigfoot “structures”:

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Monday Morning Movie Review: Ponty’s Top Ten Best Films: Hono[u]rable Mentions, Part III

The Portly Politico6 Comments

A quick blurb before getting to Ponty’s incredible post:  I’ve released my second book, Arizonan Sojourn, South Carolinian Dreams: And Other Adventures.  It’s a collection of travel essays I’ve accumulated over the last four years, and it’s available now on Amazon.

Here’s where you can pick it up:

Pick up a copy today!  Even sharing the above links is a huge help.

Thank you for your support!

—TPP

***

Ponty wraps up his extended honorable mentions with this third part, and it’s the biggest one yet.

In reading through his lists, I’m struck by how many incredible films have come out in my lifetime.  The 1980s through the early 2000s were surely a golden age for engaging storytelling on the big screen.  Even crummier films from those decades are far more enjoyable (and significantly less “woke”) than much of the garbage coming out now.  I’m not suggesting there are no good films these days—quite the contrary—but those years were sprinkled with fairy dust.

Ponty leaves no cinematic stone unturned.  He told me he had spent four hours writing this list—and at that point, he wasn’t even finished!  I don’t think I’ve ever spent four hours on a blog post.  Kudos to him:  this list is a true labor of love, and we’re all the beneficiaries of his pen.

With that, here is Ponty’s third and final installment of honorable mentions:

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Myersvision: Other Sources

The Portly Politico11 Comments

After offering a detailed rundown of Bigfoot books, Audre Myers offers up some additional sources—YouTube videos.  Her criteria for selecting these videos is clever, and would seem to avoid the two extremes of Bigfoot belief:  uncritical acceptance and uncritical denial.  What’s left are balanced skeptics or (like myself) those who want to believe, but aren’t going to shut off their critical faculties to do so.

There are a great deal of hoaxes, I have gathered, in the Bigfoot “community,” if that’s the name for it.  These do a disservice to developing a better understanding of this possible creature:  it makes it too easy to write off Bigfoot proponents as cranks or grifters.

One of the videos Audre includes tries to set a “creepy” vibe, and I think the tendency of Bigfoot and cryptozoology content creators to create such an atmosphere also harms the Bigfoot community.  Instead of simply examining or presenting the videos, they’re framing it as some kind of spooky entertainment, a cheap thrill on a Saturday night.  Whether it’s fair or not, this presentation makes me discount the video almost immediately.

Bigfoot is entertaining to study and to speculate about—otherwise, I wouldn’t be running so many Bigfoot posts, and so eagerly—but my word of advice to the Bigfoot believers is to take your subject seriously.  Don’t frame him as some kind of hokey monster, and maybe people will take you more seriously.

Whether we like it or not, optics matter.  Fortunately for us, Audre gets the optics right—and the facts.

With that, here is Audre’s survey of some additional Bigfoot sources:

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Monday Morning Movie Review: Ponty’s Top Ten Best Films: Hono[u]rable Mentions, Part II

The Portly Politico10 Comments

Ponty is a good chap, but brevity isn’t exactly his strong suit.  That is a fortunate for the rest of us, because it means we get more of his meaty, delicious commentary on films!

My good buddy from across the pond did quite a bit of fretting over his honorable mentions lists.  He initially promised (threatened?) three installments, then insisted he could whittle it down to two, then realized it would have to be a trilogy after all.

In my mind, three posts means one fewer I have to write, so bring it on!  Let a thousand honorable mentions bloom!  Ponty probably would write one thousand installments, divided into extreme micro-niches (“Italian body horror with practical effects werewolf transformations and witchcraft,” for example), but he has more important literary endeavors, and I don’t want to exploit the old boy.

All friendly teasing aside, Ponty’s done it again, with an extensive list of films.  He ladles tons of love into the action/sci-fi genre, featuring some instant classics.  Again, I’m prompted to ask myself, “Why didn’t I think of these films?”

With that, here is Ponty’s second installment of his Hono[u]rable Mentions:

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Myersvision: The Books

The Portly Politico15 Comments

The Bigfootmania continues here at The Portly Politico, and after going back with Audre Myers about the big lugs whereabouts, I asked her to write a piece about the books on Bigfoot.

I imagine there are quite a few cranks out there who are, uh, cranking out click-bait-style eBooks about the hide-and-seek world champion (I’ve long encouraged my Ph.D.-wielding, tenured older brother to write some hack book about ghosts or the like, using his doctoral degree as a way to sell books via the fallacy of authority).  Audre’s book list does note include those kinds of cheap money grabs.

Indeed, one is a Ph.D. (there’s the authority fallacy!) who has endured considerable professional scorn for his research on Bigfoot (perhaps that’s why my brother never took me up on the ghost book suggestion).  The other is a YouTuber who is not even convinced that Bigfoot exists, but who is looks at every bit of footage of the creature with a critical eye.

Perhaps belief in Bigfoot is wishful thinking, but we’re limiting ourselves intellectually if we don’t hear out the reasoned conclusions and evidence of the true believers.

With that, here is Audre’s brief bibliography of Bigfoot books:

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