People talk about harmony in nature. Artist and engineer, Bartholomaus Traubeck, took this quite literally with his unusual creation that turns the rings on a tree into music.
The device looks very much like a vinyl DJ station. A slice of tree is put on a turntable and an arm with a sensor tracks the rings, converting them to piano notes. The music is unlike anything that you’ve ever heard. Here is a video of one tree’s song that he calls “Years.” It begins at the center of the tree, the youngest part, and then works its way out to the edges. It’s fascinating to hear everything become more complex as the tree ages.
The scientific study of tree rings is called Dendrochronology. There is currently no word for someone who creates music from them. Is he a composer? The music is in the trees; he is using technology to find and interpret it. Perhaps some things don’t need a classification. That’s why they’re wonderfully weird.
We have some bizarre art for sale at the Lucky Lizard. But we also have to tip our hats to people who create amazingly bizarre works. Caitlin T. McCormack is one such artist. Using string, Caitlin creates intricate animal skeletons that will cause a double-take. Here is a video with some startling examples. (Warning: the funky music might need to be turned down in your environment.)
https://youtu.be/4MVSNMeacI4
You can see a fuller portfolio on her web site. For those who appreciate the intricate architecture of the skeleton, they are beautiful to behold. Unfortunately, as of this writing, she appears to be sold out of everything, or we might find a way to include one in the Museum.
We are in, awe, however. It is all amazingly done and we are grateful to have the chance to see them virtually.
You may have seen a recent story repeated from dailybuzz.com with titles like “Woman Buried Alive, Funeral Goers Hear Screams From The Grave.” Snopes declares this story to be false, and is is honestly unlikely that with the embalming processes commonly used in the United States that someone would make to the grave alive. However, it is not unheard of, even in our modern age, for someone presumed dead to be discovered alive in the nick of time. For example, this case in Mississippi where a man was discovered to be breathing on the embalming table!
We covered a story in 2011where a South African man was nearly buried alive. In that case the man was discovered in time. Here, there is startling video from 2013 where a Brazilian man was discovered trying to crawl from his own grave!
Should you be worried about being buried alive? Probably not. In general, modern medical professionals do a pretty good job of detecting life, or lack thereof. Of course, if you want to experience the idea of being buried alive, there is a device for haunted attractions that will give you that experience. Your author has tried this out at a HauntCon convention several years ago. You lay inside a coffin and the lid is closed. You feel it picked up, carried to your grave as people outside the coffin comment. Finally, feel yourself lowered into the grave and feel dirt tossed on you as the world becomes more and more distant. It’s probably not for everyone.
After nearly a quarter of a century, Steve Feltham is still on the hunt for Nessie, the mysterious creature reported to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. A July 16 article in The Times newspaper claimed that Feltham was giving up the search because he had concluded that Nessie is a catfish. (This New York Post version of the story doesn’t require a subscription.)
Steve Feltham suggests that the Loch Ness Monster may be a misidentified Wels Catfish, which can grow to 13 ft. (Photo by Dieter Florian tauchshop-florian.de [CC BY-SA 3.0])However, the rumors of the end of his quest are exaggerated. When Fletham spoke to Reuters he said “It’s still a massive world-class mystery. It’s been a life-long passion for me and I’m dedicated to being here and being fully involved in this whole hunt. I couldn’t be more content doing anything else.”
When asked about his catfish theory Feltham replied “At the moment, a Wels catfish ticks more of the boxes than any of the other contenders for the explanation. I would like it to be something new and undiscovered rather than something a little bit mundane. People do report four- or five-feet long necks sticking up out of Loch Ness. That’s not going to be a Wels catfish.”
Steve Feltham walked away from his home, his job and his girlfriend in 1991 to take up residence in a little trailer next to Loch Ness. He keeps watch with a set of powerful binoculars and sells little Nessie sculptures to tourists. What caused him to take such a huge leap in his life? This video from his Nessie Hunter web site tells the story best.
Feltham is the best kind of monster hunter. His dedication and even-headedness on this search is admirable and gives us hope that he will find the truth. Watch how he handles this news reporter.
We’ve talked about Feltham before in these articles from June and July of 2011.
Glad to have you out there, Steve Feltham. Best of luck on your quest!
In 1963 a man named Ralph Farrar was diagnosed with a disease called Hemochromatosis. The result was that his blood had too much iron. The treatment at the time—which is still recommended today—is removal of blood from the body on a regular basis. Once a week, Farrar would go to the doctor where they would remove a pint of his blood.
Blood taken for this purpose cannot be used as part of a blood bank, so he found another use. Once a week he would pour a bottle on his roses as an iron-rich fertilizer. Ralph lived in San Antonio, Texas, but his story was picked up by the Associated Press (AP). Here is an archive of the original article as it appeared in the Tuscaloosa News on June 29, 1963.
A swarm of locusts heading from Texas to Oklahoma was so large that it was detected on Doppler RADAR.
In the Bible book of Exodus, chapter 10, Egypt is struck by a plague of locusts as Moses demands that the Pharaoh let his people go! What did Oklahoma do?
According to National Geographic, locusts, which are normally more solitary insects, will band together into a ravenous group when conditions are lush. This group will move over the land, devouring everything it can. Swarms can be up to 460 square miles (1,200 square kilometers), containing 40 to 80 million locusts in less than half a square mile (one square kilometer).
Here is video of a swarm in progress.
This is worse than the rain of spider we reported a while back! At least they weren’t destructive.
Nature is always weirder and more powerful than we imagine.
Three talking boards await clearing by Doc Saul Ravencraft.
As I give tours to visitors at the Museum of the Weird I tell them about my role in making sure that everything our owner, Steve, brings to the Museum is safe for display to the public. We have young people and drinking people who come in and we don’t want anything that will be spiritually challenging or that might follow you home.
Recently, Steve walks in with these three talking boards that I think he bought from an estate sale. If you are alive, you know that talking boards (Ouija is treated as a trademarked brand name by Parker Brothers) have a reputation for ghostly activity and demonic possession that would make for a good horror film. Though, it usually makes for a bad horror film; the 2014 film Ouija only hit 7% on Rotten Tomatoes. If you are dead, you might find these corridors of communication to be pretty interesting. (I’m not sure what our readership is from beyond.)
Are talking boards dangerous? Are they invitations to dark spirits? Are they a telephone to relatives on the other side? Are they a party game that is more hoax than hex?
May 1, 1920 cover featuring Ouija board art by Norman Rockwell
Talking boards haven’t always had this terrible reputation. When they were first made commercial by William Fuld in 1890 spiritualism was in its heyday. People didn’t have an Xbox to gather around so they found other ways to entertain themselves. A séance made for a fun evening, whether you were a true believer or not. (It still does.) It was a common enough part of Americana that Norman Rockwell chose it for the May 1, 1920 cover of The Saturday Evening Post.
To get a feel for all of this, I highly recommend looking through the on-line Museum of Talking Board’s gallery. There are some beautiful and quirky versions of the talking board.
The darker reputation of the Ouija board is a more recent phenomenon. It’s not hard to find terrifying tales by people whose game turned into something supernatural. Religious and skeptical groups cry out against them, though for opposite reasons. Even so, the boards remain popular, with the classic boards selling more. Beautiful, artistic versions of the board are widely produced.
Of course, you don’t need to buy a fancy board to make a connection. You can make your own talking board with a piece of paper, Scrabble® tiles or any number of methods. For homemade methods it’s common to use an overturned glass. There are also games, such as the more recent Charlie Charlie, that look to connect with nothing more than a piece of paper and a couple of pencils. (Some of the Charlie Charlie videos are pretty funny.)
On my end, I used my own methods to clear these talking boards of any previous spiritual presence they might contain. The Ouija Queen board went to another collector and the other two came into my own. Will they be tools for amusement or will they open gateways into terror? Time will tell. Until then, I leave you with this brief TV ad by Parker Brothers.
Yesterday we told you about Joliet the haunted doll. She is not the most terrifying story we found. In fact, there are many, many reports of haunted dolls. Because of the film depictions, the most famous is probably Annabelle. Demonologists, Ed and Lorraine Warren, were the investigators who encountered this haunted doll.
As you can see, the real doll looks a lot different than what is depicted in the film. It’s an adorable, harmless-looking rag doll. Perhaps that obvious innocence is what makes the story so much more terrifying. We can understand a creepy doll being possessed. It makes much less sense for something like this.
This video tells you the story of Annabelle, without a lot of extra scares thrown in. Honestly, we think the real story is creepier. With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 29% for the film a lot of people seem to agree.
https://youtu.be/kkJW2MU8-Sg
We’ll share more stories about haunted dolls and other artifacts in the future. There is a reason we are so careful with the items that come into the Museum. Share your own haunted artifact story.
People who have never had a paranormal experience cannot imagine it. Employees who were not in the Museum of the Weird when we experienced most of our own activity don’t fully understand the confusion, the anxiety, and the fear that was caused by seemingly innocuous events. In a story there are all kinds of possibilities, even probabilities. When it actually happens to you it’s a singularity.
Among the objects that are reported as haunted, dolls come up again and again. If you’ve ever been in the house of an avid doll collector you can probably understand why. There is something unsettling about being surrounded by a multitude of unblinking faces. But some reports go far beyond just being unnerved. This video tells the story of Joliet, a doll whose haunting is mired in pain and grief.
https://youtu.be/lRGawHQQgXg
Have you every had an experience with a haunted object? Tell us about it.
Truth is often stranger than fiction. A July 14th article of German news site Spiegel:Online, (original German or Google translation) reports that the skull of director, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (1888-1931), has apparently been stolen from the family mausoleum. Murnau introduced vampires to film with his classic 1922 silent film, “Nosferatu – A Symphony of Horror.” It appears that the thieves targeted Fredrich’s coffin in particular. The two coffins of his brothers remained undisturbed.
Investigators also found wax residue around the coffins that could have come from candles. Were these used simply for light or was some dark ritual performed in the grave during the theft?
As you can see in this trailer, Nosferatu gave us some iconic ideas about horror that are still echoed in today’s films.
If you haven’t seen this classic, it’s worth viewing. A restored version is on YouTube.
Why was the head stolen? Was it just a bold souvenir seeker? Is this going to sit in someone’s private collection? Or is this more sinister? Has this been taken for some sort of occult purpose? If so, what?
So far there are no leads that have been made public.
In 1963 a man named Ralph Farrar was diagnosed with a disease called 
