UniversalClass.com: UFO Studies

Since I haven't gone anywhere in two months, I decided to take some free courses while I'm staying safe at home...my library system lets members take courses on UniversalClass.com for free, and when I saw that they offered a UFO Studies class, of course I had to take it. The course consists of nine lessons, covering topics like Roswell, alien abductions, and crop circles, and even though I already know a ton about UFOs/aliens, I learned a lot and ended up with a final grade of 98%, so I think that officially makes me a UFO expert. 😉 If you're interested in taking the course, you can find it here:

https://library.universalclass.com/i/librarycourse/study-of-ufos.htm

Aliens Like Us with Rhys Darby

As someone who loves Rhys Darby and all things alien, I was excited to find out that Rhys Darby has a new podcast about aliens. Aliens Like Us with Rhys Darby was released on Spotify today, and it's a fun look at extraterrestrials featuring UFO news, expert guests, and more. In the first episode ("What Are They?"), Rhys, co-host Leon "Buttons" Kirkbeck, and producer Ethan Edenberg discuss recent reports of cattle mutilation, talk about MUFON and Area 51 with actor Henry Zebrowski, and share a real report from a contactee.

I really enjoyed the first episode of Aliens Like Us...Rhys was delightful as always, and I could listen to him talk about anything, but I especially enjoy listening to him talk about aliens. I'm excited to start off my Wednesday mornings with this podcast and will be eagerly awaiting new episodes. If you're anything like me, you'll love Aliens Like Us, so head over to Spotify and give it a listen and a follow now. 👽

Spotify: Aliens Like Us with Rhys Darby

National Alien Abduction Day

Happy Alien Abduction Day! Be careful out there, and keep your eye on the sky. ; )

2018 Roswell UFO Festival

It's almost time for the Roswell UFO Festival again! The festival takes place July 6th-8th and is sure to be a lot of fun...I went in 2013, and I really want to go back. The festival offers interesting lectures by Stanton Friedman, Thomas Carey, Donald Schmitt, Travis Walton, and many others, and you can see the schedule here:

http://www.ufofestivalroswell.com/2018-schedule-of-events/

Check out the UFO Festival's website to see what fun stuff will be going on! : )

http://www.ufofestivalroswell.com/

AlienCon 2018

If you're interested in aliens and UFOs, you'll want to check out AlienCon this summer! The convention takes place June 15th-17th at the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, California and features guests like David Duchovny (love him!), Star Trek: The Next Generation's Gates McFadden, Star Trek Voyager's Robert Picardo, Ancient Aliens' Giorgio A. Tsoukalos, and author Erich von Däniken. Day passes costs $61, and weekend passes are $124. For more information, check out the AlienCon website:

AlienCon

Movie Spotlight: Absolutely Anything

Absolutely Anything is a 2015 movie starring Simon Pegg, Kate Beckinsale, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Rob Riggle, Eddie Izzard, and Joanna Lumley and featuring the voices of Robin Williams, Michael Palin, Terry Jones (who also directed the movie), Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, and Eric Idle. Schoolteacher Neil Clarke (Simon Pegg) is given the ability to do anything by a group of aliens who want to see if he will use his powers for good or evil (and if he chooses evil, Earth will be destroyed).

Absolutely Anything is a fun movie with an impressive cast, particularly Simon Pegg as a man learning that having powers can be more of a curse than a gift. Though all the humans in the film
were great, my favorite character was Neil's dog, Dennis (voiced by Robin Williams), because he was adorable, and dogs are the best. ; )

My rating: 7/10

2017 Roswell UFO Festival

It's almost time for the Roswell UFO Festival again! The festival starts on June 29th, and this year is the 70th anniversary of the famous UFO crash, so you should go if you get the chance. I went in 2013, and it was so much fun! The festival offers lots of interesting lectures by UFO experts, and you can see who the guests will be here:

http://www.ufofestivalroswell.com/ufo-festival-guest-speakers/

Check out the UFO Festival's website to see what fun stuff will be going on! : )

http://www.ufofestivalroswell.com/

Movie Spotlight: Evil Alien Conquerors

Evil Alien Conquerors is a 2003 movie starring Michael Weston, Chris Parnell, Diedrich Bader, Tyler Labine, Elden Henson, Phil LaMarr, and Beth Grant. Two evil aliens, My-ik (Diedrich Bader) and Du-ug (Chris Parnell), from a planet called Kabijj are sent to Earth with a mission: to behead all humans within two days and take over the world. Will they be able to accomplish this seemingly impossible task, or will they keep getting too distracted by women and Smirnoff Ice to destroy mankind?

I watched Evil Alien Conquerors a few years ago, and I really liked it, so I decided to watch it again and write about it on my blog. I love Chris Parnell, and he's great in this, as is Diedrich Bader. Evil Alien Conquerors is silly, entertaining, and original, so give it a chance if that's the kind of thing you like. : )

My rating:7.5/10

2017 MUFON Symposium

MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) is holding this year's symposium July 21st-23rd at the JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort and Spa. This year's theme is "The Case for a Secret Space Program" and panel topics include "The US Navy's Secret Space Program and Nordic Extraterrestrial Alliance," "A Case for Underwater Alien Bases: What Deep Water  Secrets are the Oceans Hiding?," and "The Fluxliner, or Alien Reproduction Vehicle, Theory of Operation." Attendees can also learn how to be MUFON Field Investigators or take an Area 51 tour. I would love to go to this, but I won't be able to, so if any of you guys go and would like to write a guest post about it, let me know.  : )


https://www.mufonsymposium.com/

Movie Spotlight: Arrival

Arrival is a 2016 movie starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, Tzi Ma, and Mark O'Brien. When a dozen spacecrafts appear around the world, a linguistics professor (Amy Adams), an Army Colonel (Forest Whitaker), and a physicist (Jeremy Renner) team up to decipher the language of the extraterrestrials in order to find out what they want.

I usually don't enjoy Oscar-nominated movies (I'm more into comedies and horror movies), but Arrival is an exception, and it deserves all the critical acclaim it has received. The performances were excellent, and the aliens were some of the most realistic-looking aliens I've ever seen in a movie. If you're looking for a typical alien invasion movie (aliens being jerks and destroying everything), you might want to skip Arrival, but if you want to see a captivating, visually stunning sci-fi movie, Arrival is a great choice.

My rating: 8/10

New TV Show: Jeff & Some Aliens

Jeff & Some Aliens is an animated show that premiered on Comedy Central on January 11, 2017. It features the voices of Brett Gelman, Alessandro Minoli, Jon Daly, Richard Kind, Alicia Silverstone, and Tress MacNellie. Jeff (Brett Gelman) is an average guy...except for the fact that he shares his one-bedroom apartment with three aliens (Alessandro Minoli) who were sent to Earth to learn about the human race.

I'm always interested to see new shows and movies about aliens, especially when they're comedies, so of course I had to check out Jeff & Some Aliens. I've watched the first two episodes so far, and they were funny, weird, and inappropriate, which happen to be my three favorite qualities in a TV show. If you like shows about aliens, you should definitely give this one a chance. : )

New episodes air on Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m., and you can check out the official website here:

http://www.cc.com/shows/jeff-and-some-aliens

UFO Socks

Check out these cool socks I found last weekend! : )

If you want a pair of your own, head to the nearest Urban Outfitters or get them on the website:

http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=40321051&category=SEARCH+RESULTS

Book Review: The 37th Parallel by Ben Mezrich

The 37th Parallel: The Secret Truth Behind America's UFO Highway is a 2016 book by Ben Mezrich. Volunteer sheriff's deputy/microchip engineer Chuck Zukowski has been interested in UFOs since he was a teenager and often travels with his family to investigate reports of an extraterrestrial nature. When he discovers that mutilated livestock has been found on a ranch in Rush, Colorado, Chuck decides to get to the bottom of this incident and several other mutilations that have occurred around the "UFO Highway."

The 37th Parallel is a fascinating book, and I was surprised to learn that there have been more than 10,000 cases of unexplained animal mutilation over the past fifty years. I didn't know much about the UFO Highway, but basically it's the 37th degree of latitude and touches Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Kansas, and Oklahoma, and it has seen a fair amount of possible extraterrestrial activity (you can find info about some of these events that have occurred along the 37th Parallel here: http://nypost.com/2016/09/04/this-investigator-chases-aliens-along-americas-paranormal-highway/). The entire book was interesting, but the parts I enjoyed the most were the accounts of Chuck's visits to the Roswell UFO Museum and Research Center and the UFO Watchtower in Hooper, Colorado, since those are places I've also visited. : )

My rating: 8/10

You can check out Chuck's website here:

http://www.ufonut.com/

Book Review: Close Encounters of the Fatal Kind by Nick Redfern

My brother gave me Nick Redfern's Close Encounters of the Fatal Kind: Suspicious Deaths, Mysterious Murders, and Bizarre Disappearances in UFO History for Christmas last year, and I'm glad he did because it's one of the most fascinating books I've ever read. I've been interested in aliens/UFOs since childhood, and I've read a lot of books on the subject, so of course this one was right up my alley. Here are a few interesting things the book covers:

-Joao Prestes Filho, who basically melted in front of doctors in June 1947
-James Forrestal, the first U.S. Secretary of Defense...he died after supposedly jumping from the 16th floor of Bethesda Naval Hospital in 1949, but some believe that he may have been pushed because he knew too much about UFOs
-Pont-Saint-Esprit (France), where hundreds of people had hallucinations of terrifying creatures in August 1951
-JFK and his connection to UFOs: He'd told William Holden of the Air Force that he wanted to tell the public what he knew about the UFO cover-up, and rumor has it that there's a CIA document stating that JFK knew the truth about the Roswell crash and told Marilyn Monroe about it.

If you're interested in UFOs, you should check out Close Encounters of the Fatal Kind; it's one of the most interesting books I've read on the topic, and I really enjoyed reading it. Nick Redfern has written several books, and I'm definitely going to read some more of them. : )

My rating: 8/10

Movie Spotlight: Lazer Team

Lazer Team is 2015 movie starring Burnie Burns, Gavin Free, Michael Jones, Colton Dunn, Allie DeBerry, and Alan Ritchson. Four men find a battle suit at a UFO crash site (from a crash that was caused by one of the men shooting fireworks) and must use the suit's powers to save the planet from evil aliens.

I enjoyed Lazer Team...it's funny, entertaining, and has aliens, so what's not to like? The four leads were great...especially Colton Dunn, who I loved as one of the hilarious animal control guys on Parks and Recreation. There's a sequel in the works, and I'll definitely watch it when it comes out on DVD. : )

My rating: 7/10

Roswell UFO Festival 2016

This year's Roswell UFO Festival starts on July 1st, and if you get a chance, you should definitely go...I went in 2013, and it was so much fun! The festival offers lots of interesting lectures by UFO experts, and you can see who the guests will be here:

http://www.ufofestivalroswell.com/ufo-festival-guest-speakers/

Check out the UFO Festival's website to see what fun stuff will be going on this weekend! : )

http://www.ufofestivalroswell.com/

MUFON Books

MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) recently announced that they're going into the book business, and I'm pretty excited about it since I'm always looking for more books to read about aliens/UFOs. Their website has sections for the Top 100 UFO Books (I'm sure I'll be adding a bunch of those to my wish list.), MUFON Classics, Featured Authors, and Featured Books. You can check out MUFON (and submit your own UFO book if you have one) here:

www.mufonbooks.com

And you can follow them on Facebook here:

https://www.facebook.com/mufonbooks/

Movie Spotlight: The 5th Wave

The 5th Wave is a 2016 movie starring Chloë Grace Moretz, Nick Robinson, Ron Livingston, Maggie Siff, Alex Roe, Maria Bello, Maika Monroe, Liev Schreiber, and Zackary Arthur. It's based on a young adult novel by Rick Yancey. After an alien invasion has devastated the world, 16-year-old Cassie Sullivan (Chloë Grace Moretz) tries to rescue her 5-year-old brother (Zackary Arthur) before the fifth wave of attacks.

The 5th Wave is an unsettling movie about the horrors of alien invasion and a teenage girl's willingness to do whatever it takes to save her brother. It seemed more realistic than most alien movies (not over-the-top like a lot of them), and the aliens were real jerks. All of the actors gave great performances, especially Chloë Grace Moretz, who has been great in everything I've seen her in. : )

My rating: 7.5/10

Movie Spotlight: Freaks of Nature

Freaks of Nature is a 2015 movie starring Nicholas Braun, Mackenzie Davis, Josh Fadem, Joan Cusack, Bob Odenkirk, Keegan-Michael Key, Ed Westwick, Patton Oswalt, Vanessa Hudgens, and Denis Leary. Dilford is a peaceful town where humans, vampires, and zombies get along just fine...until the alien apocalypse happens. Now the humans, vampires, and zombies are fighting each other, and human Dag (Nicholas Braun), vampire Petra (Mackenzie Davis), and zombie Ned (Josh Fadem) must work together to rid their town of the aliens and help Dilford return to the way it used to be.

I watched Freaks of Nature for Bob Odenkirk, Patton Oswalt, and Denis Leary, and even though they weren't in the movie as much as I would've liked, I still enjoyed it. Freaks of Nature is a fun movie with a big surprise near the end, and I like that it isn't just a vampire movie, zombie movie, or alien movie...it's ALL THREE!

My rating: 7.5/10

TV Show Preview: People of Earth

When I was watching the Angie Tribeca marathon a few weeks ago, TBS showed a preview for an upcoming show that I'm sure I'll like. It's called People of Earth, it stars Wyatt Cenac, Ana Gasteyer, and Oscar Nunez, and it's about a support group for people who have been abducted by aliens. I haven't been able to find a premiere date yet, but you can watch the People of Earth trailer on the TBS website. I'm really looking forward to this show. : )

http://www.tbs.com/videos/people-of-earth/season-1/extras/1735102/people-of-earth-trailer.html