It's A Done Deal

A few well-placed threats later, and I'm now on the speaker's schedule for the Roswell 60th anniversary hoe-down. I really wanted to go to this, if only for a sense of closure, since the last one I attended was 10 years ago. What a wacky weekend that was. It was the only time I was able to meet alien writing researcher Mario Pazzaglini in person, I cajoled Travis Walton into an impromptu phone interview, and best of all, my friends and I went to a rain-soaked dirt track race where we drank beer and smoked cigars.

The Raelians had a recruiting booth in the vendor's hall featuring hot babes in black leotards. Leah Ceto's New Friends Haley's husband sold me a copy of Trance Formation of America. The Roswell funeral home had one of their finest coffins on display for some reason, into which my friend Ralph Coon placed a few copies of his zine. I found a black t-shirt with Marshall Applewhite's head floating on a starry background and the words "FOLLOW ME" below it.

Hearing Whitley Strieber speak in the abandoned Roswell Army Airfield hangar was good too. I made a recording of that, which I should still have somewhere. Just as he took the podium, one of those wonderfully violent New Mexico summer thunderstorms kicked in, which seemed tailor-made for the occasion. Maybe old Whit made a deal with the aliens beforehand. Ear-splitting booms rattled the broken windows and rivers of water snaked along the floor. A lot of people stood on their chairs for fear of electrocution.

We also bought a LOT of fireworks and spent an hour or so in pyrotechnic bliss after the hangar talk.

I met Jim Moseley for the second time and took a picture of him partying with a couple of raver girls. He had a beer in one hand and was wearing a glow-in-the-dark tube around his head.

Does anyone know how to post audio files here? If I find the recording of Strieber I might put it up.