West Side Story-Officer Krupke

Gee, Officer Krupke!: Stuffy UFO Pundits

I’m a big fan of musicals, which I readily accept is not everyone’s taste, go ahead, mock me if you must, I can take it. Anyway, I can’t help but see a lot of what goes on in UFOlogy mirrored in muscials. As the pohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifst below from The Court Jester shows; parallels and comparisons can be made bewteen the two. Some time ago I used the song Razzle Dazzle from Chicago to show a comparison between that and our friends, the .

In the recent to do and rant about humor and fun in UFOlogy from who know who, (those stuffy little trollites,) I thought of the lines from the song GEE, OFFICER KRUPKE from West Side Story:

ACTION
Dear kindly Sergeant Krupke,
You gotta understand,
It's just our bringin' up-ke
That gets us out of hand.
Our mothers all are junkies,
Our fathers all are drunks.
Golly Moses, natcherly we're punks!

ACTION AND JETS
Gee, Officer Krupke, we're very upset;
We never had the love that ev'ry child oughta get.
We ain't no delinquents,
We're misunderstood.
Deep down inside us there is good!

ACTION
There is good!

ALL
There is good, there is good,
There is untapped good!
Like inside, the worst of us is good!

SNOWBOY: (Spoken) That's a touchin' good story.

ACTION: (Spoken) Lemme tell it to the world!

SNOWBOY: Just tell it to the judge.

ACTION
Dear kindly Judge, your Honor,
My parents treat me rough.
With all their marijuana,
They won't give me a puff.
They didn't wanna have me,
But somehow I was had.
Leapin' lizards! That's why I'm so bad!

DIESEL: (As Judge) Right!

Officer Krupke, you're really a square;
This boy don't need a judge, he needs an analyst's care!
It's just his neurosis that oughta be curbed.
He's psychologic'ly disturbed!

ACTION
I'm disturbed!

JETS
We're disturbed, we're disturbed,
We're the most disturbed,
Like we're psychologic'ly disturbed.

DIESEL: (Spoken, as Judge) In the opinion on this court, this child is depraved on account he ain't had a normal home.

ACTION: (Spoken) Hey, I'm depraved on account I'm deprived.

DIESEL: So take him to a headshrinker.

ACTION (Sings)
My father is a bastard,
My ma's an S.O.B.
My grandpa's always plastered,
My grandma pushes tea.
My sister wears a mustache,
My brother wears a dress.
Goodness gracious, that's why I'm a mess!

A-RAB: (As Psychiatrist) Yes!
Officer Krupke, you're really a slob.
This boy don't need a doctor, just a good honest job.
Society's played him a terrible trick,
And sociologic'ly he's sick!

ACTION
I am sick!

ALL
We are sick, we are sick,
We are sick, sick, sick,
Like we're sociologically sick!

A-RAB: In my opinion, this child don't need to have his head shrunk at all. Juvenile delinquency is purely a social disease!

ACTION: Hey, I got a social disease!

A-RAB: So take him to a social worker!

ACTION
Dear kindly social worker,
They say go earn a buck.
Like be a soda jerker,
Which means like be a schumck.
It's not I'm anti-social,
I'm only anti-work.
Gloryosky! That's why I'm a jerk!

BABY JOHN: (As Female Social Worker)
Eek!
Officer Krupke, you've done it again.
This boy don't need a job, he needs a year in the pen.
It ain't just a question of misunderstood;
Deep down inside him, he's no good!

ACTION
I'm no good!

ALL
We're no good, we're no good!
We're no earthly good,
Like the best of us is no damn good!

DIESEL (As Judge)
The trouble is he's crazy.

A-RAB (As Psychiatrist)
The trouble is he drinks.

BABY JOHN (As Female Social Worker)
The trouble is he's lazy.

DIESEL
The trouble is he stinks.

A-RAB
The trouble is he's growing.

BABY JOHN
The trouble is he's grown.

ALL
Krupke, we got troubles of our own!

Gee, Officer Krupke,
We're down on our knees,
'Cause no one wants a fellow with a social disease.
Gee, Officer Krupke,
What are we to do?
Gee, Officer Krupke,
Krup you!

Music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.
© 1956, 1957 Amberson Holdings LLC and Stephen Sondheim. Copyright renewed.
Leonard Bernstein Music Publishing Company LLC, Publisher.

The Court Jester - The Pellet With The Poison

Click here to get your own player.

Brad Steiger: Alien Memories and Dreams

Brad Steiger has Alien Memories and Dreams over on UFO Digest. I found this interesting because the subject of dreams, memories, aliens, and UFOs is a part of my own experience.

MUFON, The Brew That is True, and Other Things . . .

Okay, everyone back to what they were doing. The circus is over.

As I said, now and then it's fun to play along, and it's good fodder for inspiration. Which makes it all the more delicious, since we all know that wasn't their point.

I will share the lyrics from a scene from one of my favorite movies; The Court Jester with Danny Kaye. I loved Danny Kaye when I was a kid; still do. As I was searching for images to go with the previous humor piece, I came across the poster to the movie and used. (See post below.) For some reason, the lyrics remind me of the UFO/Fortean vibe surrounding our bouncing ideas and words; we think we have the magic key that will get the Big Question answered and we pass it on to someone else who theorizes it really means this when it could mean that...oh never mind.

Griselda: Listen. I have put a pellet of poison in one of the vessels.

Hawkins: Which one?

Griselda: The one with the figure of a pestle.

Hawkins: The vessel with the pestle?

Griselda: Yes. But you don't want the vessel with the pestle, you want the chalice from the palace!

Hawkins: I-I don't want the vessel with the pestle, I want the chalice from the what?

Jean: The chalice from the palace!

Hawkins: Hm?

Griselda: It's a little crystal chalice with a figure of a palace.

Hawkins: Th-the chalice from the palace have the pellet with the poison?

Griselda: No, the pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle.

Hawkins: Oh, oh, the pestle with the vessel.

Jean: The vessel with the pestle.

Hawkins: What about the palace from the chalice?

Griselda: Not the palace from the chalice! The chalice from the palace!

Hawkins: Where's the pellet with the poison?

Griselda: In the vessel with the pestle!

Jean: Don't you see? The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle.

Griselda: The chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!

Jean: It's so easy, I can say it!

Hawkins: Well then you fight him!

Griselda: Listen carefully. The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle, the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true.

Hawkins: Where the pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle, the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true.

Jean: Good man!

Griselda: Just remember that.

Back to our usual programming.

MUFON has archived some of its early data.

Greg Bishop on UFO Mystic has a very nice post about his relationship with the late Dr. Karla Turner; his interviews with her, etc.

As you can see, I've changed the templates on The OrangeOrb, also on a few of my other blogs. It's springtime! Time for a fresh look. I wish Blogspot had more template choices, but I'm okay with what I have.

As usual, a plug for my other blogs: Vintage UFO, Women Of Esoterica, Frame 352.

UFOs, the Trickster and Humor

The Trickster is an inherent part of Fortean phenomena, including UFOs. That’s why, as I’ve said many times, things like the so-called UFO circus, the Raelians, ironies and synchronicities, surreal juxtapositions, the stonewalling by the infrastructure in regards to UFOs, the maddeningly elusive quality surrounding the indisputable authenticity of photographs, samples, castings, and recordings,hoaxers and pranksters, and the petty in-fighting will always be with us.

Which brings us to humor. Humor, like all things, has a range of styles. Some humor is barely humorous. There’s lame thick headed boorish humor, fart joke humor, cruel humor (laughing at people getting hurt, especially in the genitals) witty humor, cutting biting sarcastic humor, vaudeville humor, sex humor, all kinds of humor. Some humor isn’t funny. Some is hysterical.

Everything contains elements of humor. The Trickster knows this. Sometimes Trickster’s humor is playful and a bit of a tweak to us to remind us of things. Usually it’s to lighten up and not take ourselves too seriously all the time. Other times its humor is downright dangerous. But trying to think of the Trickster as without humor is ridiculous; the Trickster is all about humor.

The mistake some people make is in thinking that, because one laughs and sees the humor in things, the importance of that thing is trivialized. Depending on the type of humor this could be true. All those stupid jokes about “anal probes” - - enough already!

Encounters of the strange, whether it’s with aliens, UFOs, ghosts, Bigfoot, or Mothman often are very scary. There’s nothing funny about them.

Nor is the research itself a light hearted romp through curious minds.

But having fun at times, being funny, and seeing the humor in things is not hurting research, the self, or others, as long as you’re not making fun of.

The question is, are you having fun at your own expense, or others?

My husband and I make jokes all the time about UFOs and aliens. Don’t you think we both struggle with the weird things that have happened to us throughout our lives? Do you think it’s at all comfortable for us to know that we’ve experienced hours of missing time on two different occasions? That’s damn scary. It’s weird. It’s unpleasant to consider what the possible explanations are; from mental illness to government experiments to actual aliens from space. And yet we make jokes all the time. We have to.

Seeing the humor in things is a good thing, and often a healing thing. How many times in your life have you been in a crisis, and something, or someone, makes you laugh?

I’ll share a personal story that has nothing to do with UFOs or the weird. But it’s an example of humor in a seemingly inappropriate place. We went to the funeral home to my father’s memorial. Now, none of us had any money, including my deceased father. We barely scraped up enough to do what we did. My father was a riot, one hell of a funny man. He appreciated the funny goofy ironic things in life, the surreal, the absurd. So here we are, solemn, sad, in the little chapel, and here comes the funeral director, wheeling my dead father out on a trolley thing. Not the most delicate or classy of arrangements. Okay, so Dad was covered up with a sheet, but still. Now my Dad was a big guy, 6 feet 3 inches, and here he is, barely on this rickety metal table on wheels. And he starts to slide off! And the poor funeral director is trying to not notice it, but also trying to fix it, and my Dad’s body is sliding off. And you know what we all did? We started to laugh. We laughed so hard we cried. And laughed again. We laughed our asses off. Which mortified the funeral director. Which made us laugh even more. Sick? Not if you knew my Dad. (I love you Dad. . ) The point is, humor has its place in the world.

You have to see the humor in things, or you’ll go insane. Remember the television series M.A.S.H.? All that dark operating room humor. They weren’t making fun of patients, or the medical profession -- in fact, they took the work damn seriously. When it came to saving lives and helping others, they did not mess around. They knew very well the seriousness of the situation. I know M.A.S.H. was just a fictional television series and nothing like real life, including UFO real life, but it’s a good illustration of my point.

Who were considered the most useful, and immune to punishments from the ruling classes? The court jesters.

The point is the use and benefits of humor. Humor is like anything else; it can be abused, misused, misunderstood, certainly.

But to suggest that those exploring UFOlogy or other Fortean topics should not have fun at times, use or see the humor in things, is at best terribly narrow minded, and at worst, ignorant.

Besides, if you can’t see the humor for what it is within UFO studies and Forteana, you’re missing a huge part of what those are. There's nothing funny about that.

The Snarly . . .

Sometimes I just have to laugh. Usually I ignore silly blowhards, but sometimes the mood overcomes me and I have to play.

Today's example: the UFO Provocateur(s) blog (now there’s an unassuming name) have decided that when all those in the UFO field die off, it will be a good thing. Oh Happy Day. The “UFO palate” (oh, pleeeeeze!) shall be cleansed, they tell us. Oy.

After the elders die off, the young will swoop in with new bright ideas and new bright energy and save UFOLogy from itself.

What a load of crap. Young, old, in between, people with diverse backgrounds and experiences, skills and perspectives are contributing their thoughts to UFOlogy and related fields. It’s mostly and usually a good thing.

If UFOlogy stinks, it isn’t because it’s “old people” or middle aged people, or baby boomers. It’s not because there is a lack of some holy UFO Organization, or union, or guild, or whatever the hell some people want to get up and running. (However,UFOlogy will surely start to reek of its own self importance if the latter ever happens. Which, happily, it won’t. It’s a glad thing that UFOlogy is full of all kinds of people, of all ages and types. What kind of rational being thinks you can get all these types of people together in one cohesive thing? How long will such a thing last before a group of ticked off individuals leave to start their own UFO Guild of UFO High and Mightiness? Then what? We’re back where we started, having lost a lot of time in the process.)

In fact, UFOlogy doesn’t stink at all. People who think that are mostly debunkers; anti-UFOists, snarly little skeptics. Some are actually inside UFOlogy themselves, but for some twisted reasons of their own, don’t like that fact much, so have to qualify their presence. That includes saying things like “UFOlogy is a circus,”
and bemoaning the sad, sorry state of things while sneering at others. They’ve come to the party and eat all the appetizers and drink all the booze but keep checking their watches. And they won’t stay to help clean up.

Meanwhile, the world outside of UFOlogy goes on, whether those of us inside are young, old, baby boomers, middle aged, or whatever. The mainstream media continues to ridicule and ignore, the authorities continue to cover-up, the relatives think you’re crazy.

Nothing is going to change that either. It’s the way of things.

So you either be brave and true within yourself, and do what you do, and tell your story. You learn about others and think upon them. You express yourself, you discover. You do your best to ignore the bozos. And here’s a clue little mister, the bozos aren’t the My Reptilian Lizard Lover victims, the bozos are the ones who think they’re above it all, who believe their views gives them the right to insult, as if being insulting is a sign of intellectual superiority. We expect that from the aforementioned snarly skeptics, the debunkers and those types. But when it comes from within, it's a different story.

They’re not only ill mannered little buggers, but naive little buggers. They don’t get that nothing much will change on the outside, no matter how many Approved UFO Think Tanks are created, or how dismissive they are about UFO experiences.

Now here’s fair warning: the part where I get all Shirley MacLaine-ish. Things on the outside are beginning to change, and humans have the potential to help that change, regardless of a “belief” in UFOs or things Fortean. Our thoughts and energy affect the ways things go. Calm down, I’m not ridiculous enough to think that’s all you have to do; wave a crystal around and you’re done. But focusing your intent and holding that intent on a daily basis can only help.

You can choose your intent, your battles, where to put your focus. You can grumble and poke things with sticks, or you can snap out of it and be a bit more compassionate.

Zorgy Awards

By now I'm sure you know that the Zorgy Award Winners have been announced. And I'm glad to say that Lesley has come in strong in two categories; for Best Paranormal Blog (4th place) and for Best Website (3rs place) (News Summary.) Congratulations to Lesley! And all the winners and nominees. Glad to see Odd Things got a nod as well!

Best Paranormal Blog
UFO Mystic - 161
The Debris Field - 151
Posthuman Blues - 76
Odd Things - 32


Best Website (News Summary)
The Daily Grail - 1,058
The Anomalist - 193
The Debris Field - 63
UFO Review - 36

Alfred Lehmberg won for Best Troublemaker, with Jeremy Vaeni in second place. Congratulations Alfred and Jeremy!

Best UFO / Paranormal Troublemaker
Alfred Lehmberg - 178
Jeremy Vaeni - 85
James W. Moseley - 72
David Biedny - 67

Now, I'm going to start in early this year. VOTE FOR ME! I have no idea when Paul Kimball will begin the new round, but I'm putting the word in now. VOTE FOR ME!
Just keep that in mind. In doing so, here are some of my other blogs:
Vintage UFO
Women Of Esoterica
Frame 352
and of course, the OrangeOrb.

I was too naive or dumb or both to know you could nominate yourself, so this year I'll be sure to do so. So remember, VOTE FOR ME!

To see all the winners in all the categories, go to Paul Kimball's blog The Other Side of Truth.

Hoaxing the Trent Hoax Theory

Read it now on UFO Digest.

For awhile there I was playing around with manipulating photographs of UFO and paranormal locations and events, creating them as art pieces. This is one of those attempts, using the iconic Trent photo. I've done a few others that I'll post when I have a chance.

May 16 and 17th are the dates for the UFO Fest in McMinnville, Oregon. The festival is an homage to the Paul and Evelyn Trent UFO sighting in McMinnville in 1950. We went last year, and it was fun, even though we were lost, (hopelessly lost), rushed, suffering from low blood sugar, and forgot our camera!

This year we're already booked -- we'll be staying at the Hotel Oregon. Be sure to let me know if you plan to attend; I'd love to meet with others there! I'll have my laptop with me of course so emailing me is a sure way to contact me.

Richard Dolan is the speaker at this year's event. I'm looking forward to that!

For more information on the UFO Fest in McMinnville, lodging info, etc. visit here.

The Sigh Files

If ever a UFO Guild We're The Only Ones You Should Be Listening To organization gets itself going --which of course, I hope never does, the very idea is an abomination - one of the first things they need to do is pass a law that condemns the use of the following phrases: "anal probe" and "tin foil hat wearing."

UFO Magazine Time!

My UFO Magazine hat arrived today. Thanks Nancy Birnes! You can see what the hat looks like by watching UFO Hunters with Bill Birnes on the History Channel, Wednesdays at 7:00pm PST, of course. Or visit Lesley's Debris Field blog, where she models the hat to simply effervescent effect, dahlings.

The new issue is now available, with articles on the Stephenville UFO sightings, Daniel Brenton and Red Moon, my column on Brenton's Signal to Noise and the Contactees, and the greatly titled piece by Farah Yurdozu: Mary Poppins, Alien Abductions, and Gurdijeff. (Farah, among other things, is a contributor to my blog Women Of Esoterica.) Lesley writes, in her Beyond the Dial column, on skeptics: Foo on the Skeptics, and Foo on the Debunkers. Right on Lesley. (Yes, I still say "right on." I'm old, I live in Oregon.)I liked what Lesley wrote about a recent Culture of Contact episode with Frank Feschino and Alfred Lehmberg:

Not only was the fantastic Frank Feschino on, but also my friend Alfred. I don't know very many of the other columnists here at UFO Magazine, but I do know both Alfred and Jeremy.

I was kind of half-hoping that Alfred would say something so outrageous that would make Jeff Ritzman turn purple but it didn't happen. Alfred was a total gentleman, as he normally is, or at least he has always been to me.

(I second that. Alfred gets a lot of grief from people who don't get him, don't want to get him, and started it in the first place. The difference is that Alfred isn't passive aggressive, while many people are. Then they act surprised, affronted, insulted, that Alfred calls them on it; and, overall, doesn't suffer fools gladly. That's my take anyway. Plus, he knows what he's talking about.)

Lots of other good things in the issue. My next column in UFO Magazine (also called the OrangeOrb) will be about Contactee Dana Howard.

"Oh yes they do!"

I was visiting with my friend "Lola" the other day. Things almost always turn esoteric very quickly when we get together. Lola is my friend who lives in the coastal range; the one with a family full of paranormal encounters: ghosts, entities, psi, Bigfoot, UFOs . . .

Anyway, we were talking about UFOs and aliens and related things, and she shared with me that someone she knows in her small town used to live in the south, where, according to this person, they saw UFOs almost every day. Everyone was seeing them. But no on was talking about them. This person said the military was always hanging around, glaring at people and buying them drinks to get them drunk to keep them talking, or to stop them from talking, I forget which. Lola couldn't remember where in Florida this took place. "Gulf Breeze?!" I asked excitedly. "No, it wasn't Gulf Breeze," Lola said. Hmmm.

Lola said to her friend that UFOs are incredible, we just don't have the technology to make these things. "Oh yes they do!" her friend said vehemently. For her friend used to live on a military base. Then there was lots of juicy stuff about near MIB encounters and other weirdness.

"Lola," I said, firmly. "You have to put me in contact with this person!" I paused. "You must!"

Lola of course knew that, and so, we'll see if I can meet this person and find out more.

This conversation had me thinking about a common UFO meme; that we don't have the technology to do the things many UFOs do. How do we know that? We don't. It does seem fantastic, but not impossible. What "they" know, we only get to know years -- decades -- later. If at all. Der. In a moment of synchronicity, I came across something today about Nick Redfern's views on the Phoenix Lights event. He thinks it was a staged event by us, not aliens. I wouldn't be surprised.

I still believe there are aliens around, and that they're even here, but that doesn't exclude the government's participation in all this, not for a minute. Half the stuff we see and experience are thanks to our covert individuals, not aliens or other non-human entities. Which is almost as scary as accepting that UFOs, missing time, and all the other UFO weirdness are caused by extraterrestrials. Which is scarier: ET, or our own government(s) using us as guinea pigs? And why do so many of us within UFO studies reject the latter possibility?

Meanwhile, I'll wait for Lola's friend to contact me.

The UFO Tarot

I collect Tarot and divination decks, and was idly looking through the House of Tarot website, and found this: The UFO Tarot deck. It was bound to happen!

You can see more decks that I found interesting on the Women Of Esoterica blog.