Have aliens from space visited us?

Larry King's 11 year old interview is

 Shermer on Larry King Live with the UFOlogists 

It has people that I wouldn't disagree with

as they range from Presidents, Governors, an Astronaut

(who was the second person to walk on the moon),

and many others that include witnesses.

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There is also Michael Shermer, a leading Skeptic,

among the panel. Always an important person to listen to.

(He is also the editor of Skeptic, a magazine well worth reading).

He has objections to the standard story and wants evidence.

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A documentary, Out of the Blue,

and subtitled

The Definitive Investigation on UFOs

is narrated by Peter Coyote

and many of you maybe familiar with him.

Most people think it's the best film in this genre!

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There are, of course, objections by many serious people

about all these being 'conspiracy theories'

and they are mainly right.

But not all of them can be right, either.

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One theory that is almost always mentioned

is that the Governments are hiding a secret 

and don't want it out in public view

because it would create a panic.

Some say that beings outside our planet

would create a religious panic:

Why would the 'Son of God' appear just on Earth?

Christianity would then be wrong.

But that's no help, really.

Apart from the fact that hundreds of religions

and their sub-sects don't even accept that

Jesus was the 'Son of God'.

They do not even have him in their 'texts'.

In Abrahamic Religions only 2 of the 3

accept him but only one accepts him as God's Son.

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And what about Buddhists who have no God?

Why wouldn't they announce it if they knew this.

And Hindus, with their several gods

- who came from the sky - would accept this, too.

And so would Communists.

Their Atheism has no such problem.

And Scientologists would actually love it!

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One of the great pieces that I recall

was the The Walton Affair:

Woodworker Travis Walton was 'abducted',

in the presence of his friends.

Many though he'd been murdered by a friend

and the others were spinning a story.

Travis was discovered a few days later,

by a phone booth from where he contacted

a friend who was with him during the 'abduction'.

In 1993 a film Fire In The Sky was made about him.

(Do watch it! The scenes in the UFO are a treat!)

As Wikipedia stated, some people said this was a hoax.

Shermer criticized Walton's claims, saying

"I think the polygraph is not a reliable determiner of truth.

I think Travis Walton was not abducted by aliens.

In both cases, the power of deception and self-deception

is all we need to understand what really happened in 1975.

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However, you can now watch

Tarvis - The True Story of Travis Walton

and make up your own mind.

This is Travis many years later confirming

that his story is true and 100% right!

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[BTW, Tubi is a great place to watch some films for free.

But do remember that these are films.

Some are, naturally, based on true stories

but the rest are great fictions, too.]

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Favourite Artists: Dali

The Dali Mustache :)

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí

Marquis of Dalí de Púbol

Spanish

11 May 1904 – 23 January 1989

Dali was as controversial in life

as are many of his artworks

Dali loved old and new Masters and has mentioned many in his writings and conversations. The best way is to read the long piece in Wikipedia which talks about not just about his art and his life but also the problems he had among frenemies and family.

While extremely fond of several great people in Hollywood, Dali worked with some of them. The Mae West Sofa was his tribute to one of the great stars known for her charms. He also sent Harpo Marx a Christmas present of a Harp with barbed-wire strings. Here is his Mao-Marilyn portrait. 

In Hitchcock's Spellbound he did the famous Dream Sequence. He also worked with Walt Disney on Destino - a film that he painted. Dali was part of many videos and films and you can see some of them on YouTube. The famous photographer, Philippe Halsmen, did a video of Dali painting. Here is a BBC recreation.

Here are some of my favourite works. There are many more by Dali that I love … but this will have to be enough to whet your appetite.

The Sacrament of The Last Supper

Figure at the Window

Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire

The Persistence of Memory

Geopoilticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man

Metamorphosis of Narcissus

Portrait of Picasso

Soft Construction with Boiled Beans: Premonition of Civil War

Autumn Cannibalism

The Great Masturbator

Young Virgin Autos Sodomized By Her Own Chastity

The Ecumenical Council

Head Exploding

Soft Self Portrait With Fried Bacon

Discovery of America with Christopher Columbus

Lincoln in Dalivision
(There's Gala in the middle at a Cross;
If you move further you can see Lincoln)

Sleep

(Shaheen Jaffrani: My Covid Tesselation has this Man hidden in the Beige area)

The Anthropomorphic Cabinet

My Dali Remembered has this image re-done in Photoshop

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Among the most wonderful things that Dali did
was painting Alice in Wonderland on Glass

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If you need a book on Dali, there are several around,
from a small price to a heavily large price.

My recommendation would be to start with this.



It is a great start to see what he could do.
Take a look at his eye here.
Do you see something?

Here's a real close-up of it




Still not convinced?

You can see Gala and a Warped Clock!

WOW!!!

In his last few days Dali would make paintings but not sign them. They'd be put up in various shops  were sold there. The buyer would then have to bring the painting to Dali and ask him to sign it in front of themself. A gentleman bought a painting that he had seen Dali paint and took it to the artist. Dali said he won't sign it because it's fake. The buyer said that he had seen Dali paint this. "Oh", said Dali, "but I paint a lot of fake Dali's myself."

I don't believe in coincidences, but …

My father

- Abi is what I called him -

was born on 11th April 1900

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Abi loved books (English and Urdu) and poetry (which he also wrote in Urdu) and music (he had a lovely voice and could read Music in the way it was written in the West) and adored humour of all sorts. He wrote well - a bit strange for a Doctor - and his English and Urdu were really well-written. 

All my loves come from him.

More than anything else, he admired good movies: mainly English (finding the Urdu movies too similar and 'old fashioned', unless they had some good classical songs in them).

In the last days of his life - although he had been an Atheist in his college days and when he was in the UK (and I don't remember him saying his prayers until much later in life) - he became a strong Muslim, for reasons that I understand and have written about earlier, much to the annoyance of some erstwhile friends.

This meant that he stopped going to movies,

for they interfered with his prayer times.

In 1957 on his birthday I asked him to accompany me to a film, for it had his favourite actors: Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich, Tyrone Power, Elsa Lanchester. It was Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution. I pleaded and pleaded and pleaded … and he finally agreed to go, saying that he would say his Maghrib Prayers as Qazā.

What an amazing film that was!

I have seen it a number of times since then.

After the movie he and I went to my Mamooñ Jan's place, where he said his Qazā Namāz. Shah Sahab was also staying at Mamooñ Jan's house. An amazingly interesting man, Shah Sahab seemed to read minds and then talk to someone in the crowd about something … but it actually was meant for someone else sitting in the crowd that came to see him. I don't believe such things any way.

When Abi came out and after a few minutes another friend dropped in, Shah Sahab addressed him and said Qazā can't be decided from before and is only permitted if you have missed a prayer. And it is certainly not allowed after a movie. I was there and no one had said Abi had gone to a movie and was now saying his Qazā prayers. Hmmm. 

It is now 11th April 2020

Nuzhat and I are in our Lockdown Mode and looking through YouTube … and I find Witness for the Prosecution. No. Not the version I had mentioned earlier, but a BBC TV version. Ralph Richardson (later a Sir), Deborah Kerr, Diana Riggs. All wonderful stars. I had never heard of this … and we decided to see it.

Good film,

if you haven't seen the 1957 version.

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Strange to find it on Abi's 120th birthday, though.

From Abi's birthday in 1957 to today is 63 years.

Abi died on 19th September 1963 at 63 years.