October 2011 – Page 2 – Museum of the Weird

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Steve Busti

8:00PM TONIGHT! WALKING DEAD VIEWING PARTY! BYOB!

8:00pm tonight (Sunday, October 23rd), the Museum of the Weird is launching our newest weekly event: The Walking Dead Viewing Party!

Each week when there is a new episode of the AMC hit series, The Walking Dead, we will be screening it here at the Museum’s newest addition, the Weird Theater! The theater is located inside the Museum on the second floor*, and all screenings for The Walking Dead will be free with purchase of Museum admission (currently $5.00 per person). The Weird Theater is extremely small, and seating is limited to a maximum of 30 people, so show up early or purchase your tickets in advance in the store or on our website (CLICK HERE!).

We want everyone to come and join us for a good time! We are allowing this event to be a “BYOB” affair, so that adults will be able to enjoy the viewing experience while imbibing their favorite alcoholic beverage. That being said, we are laying down a few ground rules:

• Please arrive at least 30 minutes prior to the 8:00pm screening time to enjoy the Museum of the Weird and to ensure seating. Once the program begins at 8:00pm, so as not to disrupt the viewing experience we will not be allowing any more entrances into the theater. So please show up early!

• Anyone bringing in alcoholic beverages will be asked to show their proof of ID. Absolutely no sharing of alcoholic beverages with minors will be tolerated, and will result with the offending parties being ejected from the theater.

• No outside food or drink is allowed EXCEPT for alcoholic beverages in sealed personal containers, including bottled or canned beer, wine coolers, and malt and cider beverages. Non-alcoholic beverages and snacks are available for purchase in our gift shop, Lucky Lizard Curios & Gifts.

• Excessively loud and obnoxious guests will be asked to leave, and forfeit their admission without a refund.

• Anyone who arrives already visibly intoxicated will be denied admission into the Museum, period.

As long as everyone abides by these rules and respects each other’s viewing experience, we should all have a great time tonight, and if it’s successful we will host this every week! So we look forward to seeing everyone here at the Museum of the Weird tonight by 8pm, and remember to please show up early!

*NOTE: Second floor access is currently limited to use of the stairs, and there is no elevator for wheelchair access at this time. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Doc Ravencraft

Strange things afoot at the Museum…

I know that you’ve come to think of me as a fountain of wisdom, but today I’m going to be crassly commercial.

It’s Friday, and that means that I’ll be presenting at the Museum as a special attraction. What does that mean? It means for only $5 extra you get to go beyond the back door of the Museum, into the courtyard, up the stairs and into the new Inner Sanctum Theatre. It’s the only way that you’ll get to see the incredible life-size King Kong (and take your picture with him). Once there, you’ll also get to spend some special time with yours truly for an excursion into the weird.

What awaits you? I’ll bring out some of the strange artifacts from the Museum and my own collection and share their bizarre stories. (Be prepared. These things sometimes like to show off a little when they get some attention and it’s very likely that something weird will happen.) You’ll experience psychic phenomena, due to the strong qualities of the Museum’s location. (I believe it’s a combination of ley line placement and it’s central location to so much haunted activity in Austin. Whatever the reading, it’s a great place to perform psychic experiments so we may have a chance to read each others minds!) We’ll also see if the Museum’s resident ghost is in the mood to communicate.

What an incredible deal for the price of an adult beverage (if you have good taste). I’ll open the doors tonight at 7:00, 8:00 and 9:00.

I’ve also confirmed that we will be holding séance presentations over Halloween weekend for a lucky few. There will be two sessions per night at 7:00 and 9:00 PM and tickets will be $25. Seating is extremely limted, with only 10 people per session. I will demonstrate for you the methods used by old school ghost hunters in your great, great grandparent’s day. We’ll try to connect with the Museum’s ghost and some of the others who are in the area. Everyone will have the chance to have a question answered by the spirits. If you are a fan of the paranormal this is a unique opportunity to experience the spirit world. This close to Halloween I expect the veil to be quite thin. We should get good results. All seats must be reserved in advance. Do it now! Contact the Museum by phone at (512) 476-5493 or email steve@museumoftheweird.com.

ALL PROGRAMS ARE FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Steve Busti

MAN BEATS WOMAN WITH FROZEN ARMADILLO

armadillo_20111018122615_320_240 — An armadillo.

Folks, we couldn’t make these stories up if we tried.

DALLAS – A man used a frozen armadillo to attack a 57-year old Pleasant Grove woman, Dallas police said.

The incident happened on Sept. 29 in an apartment complex parking lot.

According to investigators, the altercation occurred when the suspect was selling the carcass to the victim, who planned to eat the animal.

The pair apparently began arguing over the price of the item when the man twice threw the armadillo at the woman.

The animal first struck the woman in the leg and then in her chest.

She was reportedly bruised by the attack.

Detectives have been unable to find the man, who could face assault charges.

Source: http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/unusual/101811-Man-Allegedly-Beat-Woman-with-Frozen-Armadillo#ixzz1bLydV2CG

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Chris Walden

Lone Star Spooks with Nate Riddle on The Shadow Hour

10:00 PM CST, Wednesday, 10/19/2011: It’s that time of the week… time to ease into your favorite chair, sit back and relax as we explore the sublime world of the strange, the odd, and the unusual. It’s time once again for… The Shadow Hour.

Nate Riddle joins us to talk about his book “Lone Star Spooks.” It should be another great discussion of haunts in Texas.

As always, you can listen right here with our blogtalkradio widget! You can listen to past broadcasts at any time, or tune in tonight. (Wednesday, October 19, 2011) at 10pm Central for the live broadcast. Be sure to check out the show notes, too. See you in the shadows…

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Guest Blogger

SHARK SURFING! THE NEXT BIG THING!

Now THIS guy has some guts! Or, just some decent photoshop skills.

Ok ok, maybe that’s not exactly true, but read about how this guy below ended up trying it out!

The Telegraph writes:

Doug Niblack was trying to catch another wave before going to work, when his longboard hit something hard as rock off the Oregon Coast and he suddenly found himself standing on the back of a thrashing great white shark.

Looking down, he could see a dorsal fin in front of his feet as he stood on what he described as 10 feet of back as wide as his surfboard and as black as his own Neoprene wetsuit. A tail thrashed back and forth and the water churned around him like a depth charge went off.

“It was pretty terrifying just seeing the shape emerge out of nothing and just being under me,” he said. “And the fin coming out of the water. It was just like the movies.”

The several seconds Mr Niblack spent on the back of the great white Monday off Seaside, Oregon, was a rare encounter, though not unprecedented, according to Ralph Collier, president of the Shark Research Committee in Canoga Park, Calif., and director of the Global Shark Attack File in Princeton, New Jersey.

SPOKE LIKE YODA OUR ANCESTORS DID

According to a new study of the history of human language, it turns out our ancestors of long ago actually spoke the way Master Yoda does in a movie series you might be familiar with, Star Wars.

Does George Lucas know something we don’t?

…probably not.

New Scientist writes:

What form did the first human language take? According to some linguists, all known languages descend from a proto-language, perhaps dating back to the first behaviourally modern humans 50,000 years ago. But little else is known about how our ancestors spoke.

Now two maverick linguists say they have clues. Merritt Ruhlen of Stanford University in California, and Murray Gell-Mann, at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico created a family tree for 2200 languages, living and dead, based on how they use similar sounds for the same meanings. Most modern languages use subject-verb-object sentences: “I see the dog”, while most dead ones, such as Latin, go subject-object-verb – “I the dog see”.

On Ruhlen and Gell-Mann’s tree, subject-verb-object languages always descend from subject-object-verb languages, but never the other way around. “This tells us that the putative ancestral language had subject-object-verb word order,” says Ruhlen. However, mainstream linguists are dubious about the tree’s validity.

Read similar stories at newscientist.com

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Doc Ravencraft

Take a walk on the weird side…

Old sketch of Doc Ravencraft OK, folks. It’s started. We broke the cheap champagne to open the private show room at the Museum of the Weird. For all of you who came by to watch the Zombie Movies with us last weekend, I hope that nothing followed you home. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

This Friday I am going to begin what we are calling an “Extra Attraction.” For an extra $5 (the price of an adult beverage if you have good taste) you will be able to go beyond the museum and up into the show room for some special time with Yours Truly for what will promise to be some truly weird entertainment.

I’m going to take advantage of the unusual psychic an ghostly nature of that space to delve into the paranormal. You’ll get to know the ghost of the Museum as well as the many that surround the building in downtown Austin. We’ll find out if it’s true that people are more psychic when they are in the Museum. I may also be able to drag out some of the undisplayed artifacts that really should not be viewed without some supervision.

If you are curious about the paranormal, if you have always wondered what it’s like to have a ghostly encounter or a psychic experience, if you just like things a little on the weird side, come join me at the Museum of the Weird, starting this Friday, 10/14/2011 and most Fridays after that.

Presentations are at 7:00 PM, 8:00 PM and 9:00 PM.

Entrance is $10, which includes access to the Museum ($5 value). You can purchase your tickets here.

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Guest Blogger

PHOENIX JONES, REAL-LIFE SUPERHERO, UNMASKED!!!

Right on the heels of his unfortunate arrest and his secret identity being revealed due to said arrest, Phoenix Jones has publicly released his face and identity.

Phoenix Jones, or Benjamin Fodor, rocking a haircut worthy of a superhero. This is a man who looks and acts the part of true crime-fighter. Good on ‘ya my friend! We here at The Museum Of The Weird salute you!

Here’s video from CNN of the famed unmasking.

Hopefully this will not prevent Phoenix from performing his regular duties as protector of the night for Seattle.

If so, we invite Phoenix Jones to Austin, Tx!

C’mon down partner!

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Guest Blogger

PHOENIX JONES, SEATTLE’S GREATEST CRIME FIGHTER ARRESTED AFTER HELPING!

Here is Phoenix Jones, one of Seattle’s toughest, smartest and prolific real-life super heroes…

Yet, he can’t catch a break. First, he had his nose broken earlier in the year defending the city’s residents and now Seattle PD arrests him for trying, succesfully, to stop a fight.

Phoenix Jones has gained notoriety from being a comic book-style super hero badass and making friends with one, Rainn Wilson, who himself has donned a crime-fighting costume to defend the streets of his own defenseless city in 2011’s “Super”. Despite legitimately helping citizens of Seattle, Phoenix, who’s real name has been released due to this arrest, but you will not see it here for we believe in keeping his secret-identity, secret, faces many challenges outside of the criminals he battles relentlessly, like particular officer’s of Seattle PD who do not approve of Phoenix Jones’ vigilante ways.

Does this seem like the people of Seattle have an issue with this guy?

MSNBC writes:

SEATTLE — Instead of the bad guys, it was Seattle’s most prolific self-styled superhero that ended up in handcuffs.

Police officers arrested the 23-year-old man who calls himself Phoenix Jones early Sunday after he was accused of assaulting several people with pepper spray. He was booked in county jail on four counts of assault, with arraignment set for Thursday, police said Monday.

Jones, who wears a black mask with yellow stripes and a bulging muscle bodysuit, said he was only trying to stop a street brawl.

“Just because he’s dressed up in costume, it doesn’t mean he’s in special consideration or above the law. You can’t go around pepper spraying people because you think they are fighting,” said Seattle police spokesman Det. Mark Jamieson.

In capital letters, Jones wrote on his Facebook page that said he wouldn’t “ever assault or hurt another person if they were not causing harm to another human being.”

He also released a video shot during the alleged assault on his Facebook page which he said shows that he used the spray after being attacked. It could also be found at www.vimeo.com/30307440.

PROOF OF THE RUSSIAN BIGFOOT? NOT YETI!

Pictured above is an animatronic Yeti, built and used for a commerical. Sadly, it's the closest thing to a real one there is.

Ouch, that was a sad attempt at a joke, but guess what…

…that happened and I’m leaving it.

So, apparently there is some big news waiting to come out of Russia about the existence of the fabled “Snow Men”, or Yeti. The Russian bigfoot has been in dispute for many, many years and doesn’t seem likely to be settled anytime soon. Unless we’re about to get a huge smack in the face with some evidence, which would be a nice change from the annoying prodding of maybe, maybe nots we know all to well, but where is this evidence? The same question we all ask of anyone claiming to have “proof” of anything.

Until we see something that blows our minds and the cap off cryptozoology, we’ll wait by the screen, repeatedly hitting refresh until that day comes.

The Telegraph writes:

The Russian coal-mining region of Kemerovo said in a statement on its website that footprints and possibly even hair samples belonging to the yeti were found on the research trip to its remote mountains.

“During the expedition to the Azasskaya cave, conference participants gathered indisputable proof that the Shoria mountains are inhabited by the ‘Snow Man’,” the Kemerovo region administration said.

The expedition was organised after Kemerovo’s governor invited researchers from the United States, Canada, and several other countries to share their research and stories of encounters with the creature at a conference.

“They found his footprints, his supposed bed, and various markers with which the yeti marks his territory,” the statement said. The collected “artifacts” will be analysed in a special laboratory, it said.