The Mair Park Bigfoot pays off
Many moons ago while surfing Amazon’s Listmanias I came across an author by the name of Jeremy Robinson. To cut a long story short, he was running a viral video contest to promote his new book, Pulse. I bribed my good buddy Lesmondj into spending a Saturday afternoon in the bush and what eventuated was two versions of the now infamous Bigfoot attack video (over 10,000 hits now on Metacafe and YouTube).
We won by a landslide, the closest (and only) opponent trailing by 9000ish hits (but who’s counting) and I was delighted to recieve the promised books last week.
A massive THANKYOU to Jeremy Robinson for the very generous prize (and for forking out mega moolah for the postage). Please check out his site here.
And for all those dying to know how the movie magic was created, here is some Bigfoot Attack Footage trivia…
1. No, the Bigfoot wasn’t real. There was more than one concerned person thinking the footage was authentic. Lesmondj and I must have the mean acting skills (and girls dig guys who have skills…).
2. The entire attack scene was done on the first take… with an imagined Bigfoot, yes imagined, not real.
3. Jon Dylan used his computer hacking skills to overlay the Bigfoot sound effects (purchased from Itunes for $1.79).
4. Apparently, the Bigfoot growls sound identical to a real Bigfoot, as one reader commented (as she deals with them on a daily basis – seriously).
5. The Mair Park Ghost legend is mostly true.
6. On the short version, Yes, the blood was real… from my nose. Don’t ask.
7. The rotting bone at the cave’s entrance (tedious version) was stolen from my dog.
8. Lesmondj spent the majority of the attack scene voluntarily lying in a puddle of water. The mark of a true friend.
9. There was no script.
View the short (and exhilirating) version below:
Footage of Bigfoot Attack? – Click here for more blooper videos
View the long (but informative) version below:
The Goonies and the illusive Giant Octopus
Back in the day (1985 to be precise), Goonies paraphernalia came out months before the release date here in NZ. The ever popular (at the time) Goonies Bubblegum Cards contained a couple of shots of the Giant Octopus scene. So, if you were anything like I was in ’85 (and still am), I couldn’t contain my excitement as I awaited the movie to start. The movie started and ended, there was no sign of the awesome giant octopus, I was gutted and it tarnished my view of the movie forever.
To rub salt in my wounds, at the film’s conclusion, when Data (the same kid who was in Temple of Doom) is talking to the reporters, he says: “…Yeah, and the part with the octopus was really scary!”
I could have cried.
And now, thanks to the magic of Youtube, let me reveal to you, the deleted Giant Octopus scene in all it’s glory. 29 years later all I have to say (once again) is… “Meh.”
NZ’s very own giant man-eating bird
Those of us with a fascination for cryptozoology will be familiar with Americas ‘Thunderbird’ (giant man-eating) bird legend. Well, wouldn’t you know… I Came across an extremely interesting article in this week’s NZ Herald about New Zealand’s very own man-eating bird with a 3-meter wingspan and talons as big as tiger’s claws that terrorised the early Maori.
Now if that’s not worthy of a blog post, I don’t know what is.
The Maori Legend of the giant man-eating bird, Te Hokioi, is a legend no more. It is now believed by scientists to be the Haast’s Eagle that was discovered in swamp deposits by Sir Julius von Haast in the 1870s.
Haast’s eagle has until now, always been thought to be a scavenger because its bill was similar to a vulture’s, but a re-examination of skeletons using today’s technology shows it could easily deliver a killing blow as it dived at speeds of up to 80kph.
“They were certainly capable of swooping down and taking a child… and had the ability to not only strike with their talons but to close the talons and put them through quite solid objects such as a pelvis. It was designed as a killing machine.” says Paul Scofield, the curator of vertebrate zoology at the Canterbury Museum.
The eagle’s main prey would have been Moa, flightless birds which grew to as much as 250kg and 2.5 metres tall. Tragically, it is believed that once the Moa were exterminated by humans, the giant man-eater simply died out also.
What’s really lurking down the plughole
I had to unblock the bathroom sink the other evening… joy. With the help of a crochet hook borrowed from PaisleyJade (yes, they really are good for something), I was able to pull out what I can only describe as a greeny, slimy, smelly, hairy, stringy goop that had to be seen to be believed. What caused it? Who knows… who wants to know? Which got me thinking…They are saying that the monster is nothing more than masses of Tubifex worms… but I say that is very debatable. If you watch the monster closely, you will notice that it has what looks like a membrane enveloping it, unlike worms, and it is above the water, unlike worms, and it retreats from light as one organism, unlike worms (see clip below).
To conclude, I wonder if what I pulled up out of the plughole was a decomposing ‘sewer monster’? My advice is don’t get too close to the plughole next time you brush your teeth.
(Why am I thinking about the facehugger from Alien right now?)
Authentic footage of Bigfoot attack?
A couple of weeks ago Lesmond and I entered a viral video contest promoting PULSE by Jeremy Robinson.
Although entertaining, the movie was far too long and I hate to say it… boring. Good news folks. I have re-edited it to a lean 1.15 minutes, and thanks to a blood-nose (don’t ask), it now has an alternate ending (like special edition DVDs 
So PLEASE view the clip below and tell your friends about it as the more views it has, the better chance I have of winning. Thanks heaps!
Mair Park Ghost Footage
Titanaboa update
Great Snakes: the slither continues…
While having some brief down-time and browsing some crypto blogs I came upon the above photo (click on image to enlarge). The caption translated follows (the original photograph has it written on the back):
“This is a ‘jiboia’ snake of which only part appears. It has approximately 48 meters and was found on the ‘Jari’ Lake, Pará state, where some people say there are no Big Snakes. On 11/10/1949″.
The photo is authentic but there is no way to accurately judge the size of the snake. 48 meters sounds impossibly huge… but even if it was half that size, it would be an absolute monster!
www.strangeark.com states the photo was originally published in April 28, 1949, in Brazilian newspaper… “The snake was alleged 45 meters, and was found on the Rio Abuna.”
A photographer has commented that the snake could be very close to the camera and its apparent size could very well be be just a perspective trick.
It’s nice to imagine it’s real anyway… in the relative safety of my house in ‘snakeless’ New Zealand.
