Tag: Myersvision

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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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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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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Myersvision: Project Bigfoot

The Portly Politico2 Comments

Good old Audre Myers has been sending me little e-mails each morning for the past few weeks, usually containing sweet little sentiments about the power of music and the like.  These are always a welcome start to my day, and I’m sure she sends similar e-mails to a number of fortunate souls every day.

She’s also been sending me more Bigfoot videos, I suspect because I a.) find them interesting and b.) am sympathetic to the existence of the big lug, even if I remain a bit of a skeptic.

After sending me the draft of last week’s Bigfoot post, Audre sent along a video of thirteen unexplained, alleged Bigfoot encounters.  Included in her e-mail was a rundown of the videos, sometimes with her reflections, sometimes referencing the relative quality of the videos in the compilation to the originals.

This cataloging and breakdown impressed me, and I asked Audre if I could reproduce the e-mail here in full.  She agreed, but offered me a sage warning:  people might start to think I’m a kook for running so many Bigfoot-related pieces.  She pointed out that belief in Bigfoot is still very much outside the mainstream (true), and that the blog could suffer from too much Bigfootiana.

I appreciated her looking out for me and the blog, but here’s thing thing:  I don’t care if people think it’s ridiculous.  As I’ve frequently stated, while I’d like to believe that Bigfoot exists, I’m undecided.

In my mind, the point of this blog—or at least of these Bigfoot posts—is to explore Creation with an open mind and a sense of intellectual curiosity and adventure.  Conventional wisdom is usually quite flawed—at worst, even dangerous—and, at best, boring.  Often boring is good—it’s safe and stable and productive.  Better to be boring and reliable than flamboyant and a flake.

But doesn’t anyone else feel like we’re becoming intellectually ossified?  Maybe cryptozoology isn’t the answer to that ossification, but at least it’s interesting and different and unorthodox.  Life is too short for banality.

Here’s what I wrote in response to Audre’s kind-hearted warning:

Thanks for the warning.  I’m not worried about being ridiculed.  Seriously, I don’t care.  I want to present the interesting, the unusual, the weird, the unorthodox.
There’s too much boring content out there, and too many conventional takes.  I want my blog to be spicy, unusual, and intriguing.  Your Bigfoot posts achieve that.
Like Kierkegaard, I want to embrace the absurd passionately.  Bigfoot may or may not be absurd, but he’s interesting!

We live in a time when the official wisdom is dishonest, debased, and demonic.  It’s time to embrace the absurdity of Reality.  Maybe Bigfoot is a part of that.  It takes a great deal of intellectual humility even to be open to the fact that there are many things we can’t know or understand or comprehend.

With that, here is what I am dubbing the first installment of “Project Bigfoot”:

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Myersvision: Iceman (1984)

The Portly Politico4 Comments

A great joy of writing is that sometimes, our scribbled thoughts create inspiration in others—or other writers can inspire us!  So it was that my delayed review of 1982’s The Thing provided a bit of inspirado for our dear Audre Myers.

I don’t think it was my purple prose that jolted her memory about this film; rather, the genius of The Thing reminded her of this flick, which is also set in a desolate Arctic wasteland, and which deals with some quite complex questions about humanity, biomedical ethics, and technology.

I’m adding it to my must-see list, and I suspect you should, too.

With that, here is Audre’s review of 1984’s Iceman:

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Myersvision: Theme Music

The Portly Politico23 Comments

This blog is a friend of the arts, especially music, so I was thrilled when Audre Myers submitted a review of various programs’ theme music.

Theme music does a great deal to set the tone and mood for a show; we all instantly recognize the difference between the theme music for, say, a cheesy Eighties family sitcom and a brooding detective serial.

Perhaps the greatest theme music composer of all time is Mike Post, who wrote music for Law and Order, Quantum Leap, Magnum, P.I., and The A-Team, among others.  You’ve never heard of him, but you’ve certainly heard his music:

Audre has quite a few examples for your consideration, and they’re all interesting in their own way.  Even the ones she doesn’t like are, as she acknowledges, fitting to their respective shows.

With that, here is Audre’s overview of theme music:

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Myersvision: Shaun of the Dead (2004)

The Portly Politico13 Comments

Audre Myers is offering up an unusual-for-her pick in this week’s edition of Myersvision—a comedy horror flick!  Given the time of year, it’s even more unusual, but who says yuletide can’t become ghoultide? [I originally had this review scheduled for the week leading up to Christmas, but pushed it to January due to the various Christmas movie reviews Audre, Ponty, and I wrote in December.  I liked my “ghoultide” pun too much to revise it, and it is technically still the Christmas season through 6 January 2023, Epiphany (and Audre’s birthday!). —TPP]

Ponty picked Shaun of the Dead (2004) as his Number 9 Best Film, so it’s interesting to compare his review to Audre’s.  Ponty (and myself, I should add) loves this film; Audre’s take is altogether different.

I don’t want to spoil too much of her—let’s call it “scathing”—review, but I’m going to chalk up the difference of opinion to the generation and gender gaps.  While I have known plenty of women who enjoyed Shaun of the Dead, it definitely has more of a “guy” vibe to it.  I find Pegg and Wright’s antics hilarious, and am a big fan of their so-called Cornetto Trilogy, of which Shaun is the first installment.

I also think that the title character does show some growth and transformation, going from being little more than a shuffling zombie himself to rising to the occasion to help save his friends.  The duress of a zombie outbreak forces this loser to change his ways to protect himself and his loved ones, even if he makes mistakes and reverts to old habits along the way.

But I digress.  Audre offers up a good counterbalance to the fanboyish enthusiasm of Ponty and myself.

With that, here is Audre’s review of 2004’s Shaun of the Dead:

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Myersvision: Million Pound Menu

The Portly Politico1 Comment

Readers are getting a double dose of Myersvision this week, because had I stuck to the usual schedule of posting our dear Audre‘s pieces on Wednesdays, this plucky little review would have been left until midway through January 2023, and I can’t keep it from you (or Audre) that long.

Audre possesses a love for shows that require people performing at the height of their abilities in stressful situations, often with hard cash on the line.  This show sounds exactly like that, with an added twist:  the hopes and dreams of the would-be restauranteurs involved are also on the line.

Having money to invest is, surely, a wonderful thing, but it comes with the burden of investing it wisely.  We have all heard stories of friends or distant relations who made a good investment that reaped dividends in the long-run.  We’ve also heard the alternatives, where some poor cousin—usually hoping to get rich quick—has blown his savings on a buddy’s llama farm.

What makes this show sound particularly compelling is that the investors are not mega-wealthy, the types that can afford to lose a cool mill or two and not worry about their Ferrari getting repossessed.  These are people that we might call “country comfortable” that have some quid to toss around, but they can’t afford to see it all lost in a failed specialty grilled cheese restaurant in London.

Well, I’ve said too much, and prattled on too long—I think my introduction is now longer than Audre’s piece.  D’oh!

With that, here is Audre’s review of Million Pound Menu:

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Myersvision: A Very Portly Christmas: It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

The Portly Politico22 Comments

We’re wrapping up our run of Christmas movie reviews with Audre.  Perhaps I’m saving the best for last; I imagine old Pontifex Maximus would agree.

Audre considers this film a treasure, one that is meant to be admired, not picked over, lest in the picking it lose its luster.  It’s an astute assessment from a very wise woman.

I won’t say more and let Audre do the talking.

With that, here is Audre’s review of 1946’s It’s a Wonderful Life:

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