Tonight's movie was a documentary I found at The Libe : "Eyes Of The Mothman". I have always been fascinated by this story, ever since I saw "The Mothman Prophecies" back in 2003. That movie scared the heck out of me. I thought then, and have had this feeling reinforced by a couple of repeat viewings since, that "Mothman" is not only one of the scariest movies I've ever seen, but also one of the eeriest. Man, is it weird......and scary......and that's because it's true.
This year I was gonna rewatch "The Mothman Prophecies" at Halloweentime, because it is not only ritual but law in my world that one must watch horror movies in October. You can watch 'em anytime, of course, but in October you have to watch them. And so I was gonna check out "Mothman Prophecies" from Northridge Libe....
But in searching the library system, I found this documentary which I had never before heard of, and I thought I'd give it a chance since I am always looking for new material on anything that is of interest to me. It had a good report both on Amazon and IMDB, and so I checked it out and watched half of it tonight (it's 2 1/2 hours long, I will watch the rest of it tomorrow).
I mentioned a week ago that I had just finished Peter Levenda's trilogy on the unseen, unknown haunting of America, called "Sinister Forces". The three books in his series delineate the religious, political and criminal ramifications that have played out in this country ever since the pilgrims landed and began to persecute witches and then Indians. That is an extreme oversimplification, but his overall thesis is that there is something haunted about America, and this haunted effect has been displayed throughout our history by a nearly unending run of strange, unnerving coincidences that tie so many well known events together. I cannot recommend the "Sinister Forces" trilogy highly enough, but the reason I mention it tonight is that Levenda starts book one with a tour of the area around West Virginia and Ohio where the Ancient Hopewell and Adena Indian Burial Mounds are located, and he also goes into some detail about the Mothman sightings of 1966-67. It was a big deal for these people in that area at the time, and it remains a big deal to this day. The very fact that the story lasted for almost 40 years until it was made into a major motion picture is an indication that it was no joke.
And now, the story of the Mothman continues with this documentary, which was made in 2011 and features several of the witnesses from 1966 as well as some local historians, university professors and scientists to give it context. The documentary is very well made and I am learning a lot about the story that was not included in the movie. For me, the Mothman story ranks right up there with Roswell, and I will look forward to finishing the program tomorrow night. :)
I had a nice mini-hike this afternoon, out at Chatsworth Park. Before I left, I saw a Valley Relics post on Facebook that indicated an address for Lucille Ball's old house in Chatsworth. The house stood on a large ranch she and her husband Desi Arnaz owned, and I had always thought it was the well-known and very visible large ranch property that still exists on Devonshire and Winnetka. That's the one we used to refer to as "Chad Everett's house" when the "Medical Center" star was at the top of the Hollywood TV Heap, and owned that property in the 1970s. I thought it had previously been Lucy & Desi's ranch, but I was wrong.
Their's was nearby, on or near where the property of Chaminade High School is located now, and the house is on Tuba Street, just south of Devonshire. It's just a few miles from my apartment, and on the way to Chatsworth Park, so I drove past it for the first time today, just so I could say I've seen Lucy's house. It's just a nice sized ranch house, nothing gigantic, though the ranch must have been fairly sizable.
You know I had to say it as I drove by, to myself and also to the house : "I Love Lucy"!
Then I went to Chatsworth Park and had a nice short hike in the 95 degree weather. ////
To end tonight's blog, I will tell you that today, in the mail, I got a letter from the CIA.
You read that correctly, and it is no joke. I got a reply letter, from the Central Intelligence Agency, to a Freedom Of Information Act request that I had sent them earlier this month, pursuant specifically to the Privacy Act, which allows an individual citizen to request any and all records held by the CIA (or any government agency) to be released to him or her. Sporadically, since 1998, I have sent FOIA requests to the FBI, mostly, about "What Happened In Northridge", though when I send my request letters I do not refer to the events of 1989 in colloquial terms. I use precise language instead. And I have always gotten a response. I haven't sent a lot of requests, maybe ten or twelve over the years. I got worn out, because the FBI would always just send back a sort of "form letter" runaround. I did get something more interesting from them two years ago, called a "Glomar" response. You can Google that if you wish.
Over the years, I have sent FOIA requests to the US Marshals, and the Unites States Justice Department, to the Air Force and even Edwards Air Force Base, because I know I was taken there after the Rappaport Incident. No joke, just truth.
Well anyway, in all my years of sporadic letter writing to various agencies of the United States Government, I had never sent one to the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA.
So I finally did, at the beginning of this month. I sent them a Privacy Act request. Four weeks went by, and I finally got their response letter today.
I am quite a bit blown away. The letter they sent me does not disclose anything. It does not give me any information about 1989.
But what it does is give me a degree of hope, and more than that......
There is a subtle acknowledgement, in so many words. Something I have waited half my life to hear.
I was tempted to re-print (or re-type) the letter in full, tonight - here at the blog.
But I have decided against it for now and for the near future.
I will perhaps talk a little bit about it tomorrow night.
It's a big deal, and tonight I am blowing my mind.
Thank you, CIA. I hope we can work together in the future. :)
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