Category Archives: Original Skook Blog

Family Links

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Lovesettlement has gone and outed himself as my brother. Crazy man. He’s one of my four living brothers. There was a fifth but that one has passed on. Passed away. We’ve got two sisters. That’s eight kids in all. Two fathers (one deceased), three mothers (one MIA). Your modern American family. Lovesettlement is the sibling who actually had to grow up with me. It would be nice to think that he enjoyed some of the experience.

He’s taller than I am by just a smidgeon. He didn’t used to be but a few years of yoga stretched him out. I think him having curly hair helps. It give his head more lift. He’s been dying flecks of gray into his hair so he looks more mature. He and his significant have been together longer than Nizzabet and I so perhaps he is the more mature one.

So, in honor of him linking to me, I’m linking back to him. Which means he’s forcing me to learn more HTML. Damn him.

Skook Reviews …

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Sasquatch – Legend Meets Science.

Originally I’d read that the Discovery channel planned to air this documentary in November. The month came and went. Ray Wallace died, his family told the media that he’d invented Bigfoot and so he became far more famous in death than he’d managed in life. A few more people came forward to admit to hoaxing Bigfoot. Other people stepped out to say that they’d encountered sasquatch and, dammit, they hadn’t seen a bear or a man in an ape suit. Jane Goodall said that she considered sasquatch to be a reality. And finally, last night, the documentary aired.

Skook and I watched on the little downstairs set in Nizzabet’s and my bedroom. I took the bed, Skook took the floor. Nizzabet had a meeting upstairs with Jaydogg and 2M. Art co-op stuff. The show came on at nine, pacific standard time. One hour later the twelve experts employed for the documentary resoundingly declared – Yes! Maybe.

The fingerprint expert, the statistician and the team that examined the Skookum Cast all said that the evidence pointed to a big North American ape. The voice expert, the DNA tester and the Memorial Day Film team all declared that their evidence was inconclusive. No definite negative answers on any of the evidence examined.

My furry expert says the evidence points to sasquatch playing a joke on someone. A sasquatch wandering around in broad daylight is either stoned or wants to be seen. Possibly both. Skook says the Memorial Day film (a brief clip of a possible sasquatch running up a hillside) and the ranger’s film (brief clip of a possible sasquatch walking through the woods) are both too fuzzy for him recognize as any individual. The creature in the Patterson Film would be 35 years older now and thus was unrecognizable to Skook. He reminds me that he’s rarely been to California. Sasquatch are generally nomads and can range over thousands of miles but Skook is one of the exceptions. He hasn’t been farther south than Portland in four years.

Overall I was satisfied with the show. More of the experts fell on the yes side than I expected. The tone of the narration was calm and generally low on poor logic statements. There was a tendency to describe their experts as “renowned”, “highly respected” and “elite” that I found funny. The Patterson film got analyzed from a fresh angle – a 3D modeling expert did a skeletal reconstruction based on his study of the creature. .

My complaint with all the other documentaries I’ve seen concerning sasquatch is they’ve used poor investigative technique. One piece of evidence is used to support or to damn unrelated events. I saw one (I believe it was The X Creatures) that spent a good chunk of time “proving” that the Patterson film was “most likely” a hoax and since most people who see bigfoot have also seen the Patterson film then they are predisposed to seeing something that doesn’t exist. That one was especially annoying because the amount of study put into the film seemed pretty valuable – probably height, stride and speed were determined. Then they had a special effects team do a bad remake of the Patterson film. Sigh.

Apparently Ray Wallace had his wife put on an ape suit and pose for pictures and films. I’d love to see what they looked like. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one and I’ve got most of the books on sasquatch published since the sixties.

Ah well, it’s not as if I need evidence. The complaints I have about the sasquatch documentary are the same complaints I have about news reporting in general. It’s rarely “just the facts”. Humans love stories. Truth is secondary.

And Skook? What did he think of the documentary?

He shrugged and headed out into the night. It was television. Who can trust something without a scent?

On Sasquatch Organization

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Skook watches me move stacks of books from one shelf to another. He doesn’t bother to try to get out of my way so I dodge around him the same way I’m stepping around the black plastic wrapped mattress, the portfolios and the miscellaneous boxes and bags that nest between the bookshelves.

We don’t bother discussing what I’m doing. We’ve had the discussion before and have agreed to disagree. Once in a while he’ll hold a stack of books while I shelve but it would a waste of time for me to try to have him help me actually do the shelving. In general, sasquatch love organizing things. In general, humans wouldn’t recognize sasquatch organization. It’s not like I’ve done a scientific study of this. Skook could be pulling my leg. He helped me organize our tools a few years ago. Rather, I asked him to organize the tools and then he helped me find them again so that I could re-organize them. And he said he was trying to keep his system simple for me.

It’s often asked by those who’ve never encountered a sasquatch – where’s the evidence? How could a huge animal remain undetected by science in the midst of the most sophisticated culture on the planet? According to Skook, one of the main reasons is that we (humans) don’t think like them (sasquatch). Sasquatch leave evidence of their existence all over the place. Skook has shown me artworks all over my neighborhood that were created by passing sasquatch. I never would have seen them myself. It’s not the sort of stuff that a human would create. A human would find a bunch of rocks laying around and stack them. Then he might sign his creation by scratching a symbol onto one of the rocks. A sasquatch would take the same rocks and rearrange them according to complex geometric and aesthetic patterns inspired by how they reflect light on a new moon. If she felt the need to sign the art she might pee on it. Or near it. Or she more likely she’d pee in a pattern that would be considered part of the art and not be thinking of leaving a signature at all. She would know that another sasquatch would recognize her scent on the rocks themselves.

Human culture is shaped by having evolved from small diurnal apes who lived in tribal bands. Sasquatch culture evolved in huge nocturnal apes who live mostly solitary lives. Sasquatch aren’t stupid. They’ve just not human. Nor do they have any interest in being human. (There are exceptions to every rule. Skook tells me stories. I’ll get to them eventually.)

I get new shelves set up for the MAH books. This gives me room to incorporate the three Bigfoot videos I’ve got as well as migrating over the larger books that didn’t fit on the previous set of shelves. I also get all the Lovecraft books on a single long shelf. There’s enough room that I toss in some Lovecraftian novels along with the Cthulhu Mythos stuff. I’m not really satisfied with the results of the move. Too many shelves in this block are still just random unorganized books. It’s an improvement over the last arrangement and the process of moving books around has given me ideas of other categories I’d like to set up.

Skook examines my handiwork. He shrugs at the MAH shelves. He looks at Lovecraft. He sniffs. He furors his brow. Then he takes The Dunwich Horror hardback and turns it upside down. He turns two of the role playing manuals around so the leaves are facing out. He scratches behind his ear and then taps the tops of The 37th Mandala and Darklost. He nods approvingly.

Sasquatch organization.

Library Project

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Talking about organizing my library has had me actually looking at how to get that done properly. Part of the challenge is that a lot of the shelves aren’t designed to hold books taller than a book club hardback. That means that I have to think about not only what categories of books to put together but also whether or not all the books in that category will fit on the same shelf.

I’ve currently got three categories actually arranged. Over on the west wall, on the right side I’ve got the animal section. That’s pretty much every book on animals from field guides on western birds (do I really have one of those?) to coffee table books of fossils. On the left side I’ve got a Lovecraft section. That’s a mix of old beaten paperbacks, an occasionally nice hardback and RPG gaming manuals. No standard size for either of those sections.

The third category is over on the north wall. The MAH section – Mystery Apes and Hominids – is split between fiction and fact. I’ve got a nice selection of Bigfoot and yeti books with an occasional volume of general mysterious phenomena. Most of those books are from the seventies and eighties. That’s followed by a collection of MAH novels. Some books feature Bigfoot, some yetis, others featuring more obscure critters. It’s one of the few sections down here that I’ve got alphabetized.

As I look around I can see a place where the MAH section would better fit. Not all of my MAH books are shelved on the north wall. I’ve still got a few scattered around because they are too tall for those shelves. But if I move the MAH and the Lovecraft books over to the shelves around the furnace they should all fit with room to expand the collections.

I guess I have a project for tonight while Nizzabet is off saving souls. This should be fun.

In Residence

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And who is in the house?

Nizzabet. – enthusiasm unbound, sunshine wrapped in silliness. We spent six years arguing about what sort of wedding to have and finally compromised and had two. Haven’t really had an argument since. Occasionally she’s possessed by the Dark Demon of Doom and Despair. She’s a tad less perky then. I’ve learned to live with it. It hardly outweighs her brightness.

Jaydogg – Nizzabet’s business partner. He’s not much of talker. One of the best housemates I’ve ever had and that’s saying a lot. He doesn’t let a dish stay dirty for longer than an hour or a surface stay undusted for more than a week. Fortunately he and Felix Unger have little else in common.

2M – She and Jaydogg aren’t going out. They don’t have a relationship and she doesn’t live here. Just ask him. She just rolls her eyes. Sometimes she’s accompanied by Lil’ M, her brilliant and dangerous daughter. Lil’ M needs no

Skook – he came with the place. Why he chooses the basement over the garage is beyond me. He can’t stand up down here. It can’t be much warmer than the garage even in the winter. He’s laughing when he’s not sleeping.

Paliki – Pa-thetic Li-ttle Ki-tty. Hard to believe that she’s over ten year old now. She’s gotten stockier and maybe a little calmer but she still manages to be bafflingly annoying sometimes.

Me – I’ll lie for my own amusement. I was called weird for so long that it became a compliment. I’m tall and blonde and cheerful and occasionally modest.

Nizzabet and Jason have offices upstairs. I’ve got a library down here in the basement. We guesstimate about a four thousand books and videos. Way more books than videos. There’s very little organization to it. Most of the books by a single author are on a single shelf but that’s as organized as I’ve managed to get so far.

Details to come.

Christmas Gift Used

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Today is the anniversary of nothing in particular. Tomorrow is Big Sis’s birthday. I either need to stay up to call her after midnight or remember to call her tomorrow. Neither is very likely unfortunately.

I used up Nizzabet’s last Christmas gift today, a gift certificate at Sonic Boom Records. Despite the name they don’t carry any vinyl. I don’t think I saw any tapes either. New and used CDs. The gift certificate is one of my favorite presents this year. I love music but I rarely by it for myself. I covet books not record albums.

I found five CDs to take home –

45RPM the Singles of The The

A Secret Life by Marianne Faithful

Peace by Eurythmics

Go Bang! by Shriekback

Shepherd Moons by Enya

It’s not exactly the music I listened to in my youth but neither is any of it new and untested. I got the The The mainly for “This is the Day”, a song I first heard at SKIG Row. It came on the radio at the end of one my many acid trips and burned itself into my memory. Marianne Faithful has a voice that could read bread recipes and I’d listen in rapture. Eurythmics and Shriekback have both done other albums I really liked but I’ve never heard either of these albums before. The Eurythmics album comes from ’99 so I guess it’s some sort of reunion album. I’ll have to check later and see if they did any others after this. And this Enya album from ’91 has a song on it called “Lothlorien”. A good enough reason to get it even if I didn’t find her voice intoxicating.

Listening to The The as I write this I’m surprised how many songs I recognize and I haven’t gotten to “This is the Day” yet. Quite nice.