Monday, August 29, 2011

OddWA #25 - An Electric Fish Story



If you think journalistic standards have suffered lately, check out this story from the Tacoma Daily Ledger from 1893. It's a sparkling example of the sort of penetrating, detailed accounts you just don't see these days.

On July 3rd, the newspaper featured a story about a group of local residents and two "eastern gentlemen" who had a hair raising encounter on a ...fishing and hunting trip on Puget Sound. The group was fishing near Point Defiance on the evening of July 2nd when a shift in the wind prompted them to set a course for "Black Fish Bay, Henderson Island," for a "fine trout stream running into the bay and also an excellent camping place near the fishing ground." Their sloop reached that destination in and hour and a half. The group set up camp near some surveyors from Olympia who were working in the vicinity.

Around midnight both groups were awakened by a "horrible noise" and a feeling that the air was filled with "a strong current of electricity that caused every nerve in the body to sting with pain." The source of this disturbance was a terrifying, large creature in the bay described as 150 feet long with six eyes, a walrus-shaped head and glowing copper colored bands along its length. And a propeller.

When one of the surveyors moved closer to the shore, the monster directed a stream of water resembling "blue fire" at the man, who fell to the ground "as though dead." When one of the Tacoma gentlemen tried to help the fallen surveyor, he too was knocked to the ground by this substance that originated from "two large horn-like substances." Their compatriots retreated into the woods for safety as the electrical beast continued to make horrifying sounds and bright flashes of light. After the creature departed, the men found their fallen friends on the beach, "alive but unconscious." The group called off the rest of their expedition and returned to Tacoma that morning to tell their story. One of the nameless eastern gentlemen said, "I am going to send a full account of our encounter to the Smithsonian Institute, and I doubt not but what they will send out some scientific chaps to investigate."

As far as I know, the scientific chaps never followed up on this one.

It's a funny reflection on our complex local waterways that nobody has ever pointed out that there is no such thing as "Henderson Island" on Puget Sound, much less a Black Fish Bay. There are so many islands and bays that even life-long residents would probably go along with the geography of this story. But let's be charitable. Assuming the eastern visitors mixed things up a bit, let's go with Henderson Bay near Gig Harbor -- about the only plausible place they might have reached by sail within 1.5 hours. "Black Fish" is an old term for killer whales which have been known to visit Henderson Bay from time to time, so if we're feeling extra generous maybe that could be seen as another informational mix-up. The trout fishing isn't half bad there too.

What kills this one for me is that the Tacoma Daily Ledger was a morning paper. It would be tough for the campers to reach the city, tell their story and get it published all in one morning. Maybe they managed to hitch a ride with their electrical friend. It wouldn't be the tallest tale told by returning fishermen.

CK

Thursday, July 14, 2011

OddWA #24 - The Lighthouse Lady




Washington Waterways are strewn with many shipwrecks. Few are as large or as dramatic as that of the S.S. Governor, a passenger ship that sank off Point Wilson near Port Townsend in 1921.

The Governor was on its way to Seattle after a stop in Victoria B.C. Shortly after midnight it failed to yield the right of way to the freighter West Hartland, outbound from Port Townsend. The Governor's starboard side was rammed by the freighter. The quick thinking captain of the West Hartland set his speed to full, allowing passengers from the Governor to climb to the prow of his ship.

The Washburn family wasn't so fortunate. The collision with the West Hartland sliced their cabin in half, injuring the father and trapping his two daughters. Once his wife Lucy saw her husband safely aboard the West Hartland, she broke away from crew members who were restraining her and dashed back to the Governor for her daughters. The 400 foot vessel sank in 20 minutes.

Since the wreck, an apparition of a figure wearing a white nightgown has been reported at times near the Point Wilson lighthouse. Some say it's Lucy Washburn, still searching for her daughters.

CK

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Sound Improvement

I made a little Flash cartoon called "Voodoo Vince Prehistory" years ago during the production of Voodoo Vince. I wanted to show how Vince would have looked in the early 1930's, had he existed during the era of creepy rubber hose-armed animation. When I finished this piece I just dropped in a music track from the game -- a piece called Zombie Guidance Counselor by Steve Kirk. The eighteen people who bought the game may recall this as Steve's score for the selfsame level in the game. It's a great piece, but I always felt that the cartoon would have worked better with real sound design.

Nine years later, Steve Kirk and a band of fantastic musicians have done just that. Steve re-scored the cartoon and did some stellar sound design. It's almost, well, funny now. Or more disturbing. Either way, it's 1000% better. Enjoy!



CK

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Czech Please


It makes me nervous when I do an interview for a publication in a distant land and the only word I can understand in the headline is "idiot." Fortunately, this refers to DeathSpank... At least it does this time. Pavel Dobrovsky wrote a nice Q&A for the May edition of LeveL, a gaming publication in the Czech Republic. The questions were mostly about DeathSpank, Voodoo Vince, my current misadventures at Microsoft and whether my name is fictional or not. Run out and get yours today!


CK

Sunday, May 01, 2011

OddWA #23 - Men In Black




The first CryptoWA covered this, but the era of modern UFO-olgy (along with the term "flying saucer") kicked off here with Kenneth Arnold's sighting at Mt. Rainier in 1947. On the heels of this, another piece of modern folklore began: The Men In Black.

There was an explosion of UFO stories in 1947. It seemed like everyone was seeing saucers around the world. More than a few besides Arnold's cropped up in Washington State. One became known as the Maury Island Incident. The story is convoluted, featuring UFO debris, government investigators perishing in a plane crash, a dead dog and even Kenneth Arnold himself as a peripheral character.

Among the many facets of this wild roller coaster of a tale is the first description of a vaguely threatening, official looking man in dark clothes. Harold Dahl, the source of the Maury Island story, described a visit to his Tacoma home by an individual who seemed strangely well informed about his UFO experience, even though Dahl had yet to describe it publicly.

This kicked off a concept that would appear in countless UFO stories. Later accounts of Men In Black were similar to Dahl's. They usually appear soon after a UFO sighting, seeming like government agents with their their anonymous dark clothes. MIB are often described as being slightly "off" in their mannerisms, as if not quite human or ineffably alien.

The strange, convoluted twists and turns of the Maury Island Incident have made it a lightning rod for skeptics and disbelievers. It's easy to see why. There are just too many odd elements for a rational mind to believe.

Of course, that's just what the Men in Black would want you to think.

CK

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Musical Voodoo Toon for Mardi Gras


Today is Mardi Gras! It would be a shame to let the day go by without a Voodoo Vince-related post. Imagine my surprise and delight when I found this swell cartoon up on Newgrounds, set to some of the music from the game. It's an embedded Flash cartoon and you need to click past an ad, but it's worth checking out. I think Mr. Emanhattan (if that's his real name) did a bang-up job!

One correction, though. While he does credit the music from the Voodoo Vince soundtrack, he seems to have missed the fact that the music and lyrics for the Vince theme song are actually by me, not Steve Kirk (who did a superb job arranging the tune). It's an easy mistake, since Steve did compose virtually every other piece in the game's soundtrack.

Anyway, this made my day! Laissez les bons temps rouler!

CK

Sunday, February 06, 2011

OddWA #22 - Kennewick Man



When Kennewick Man was unearthed in 1996 nobody could have guessed at the controversy that would soon surround the 9,000 year old skeleton. Everything from ownership of the remains to his genetic origins stoked a bitter debate between Native Americans and scientists. As the debate raged, nobody chose to point their finger at the most obvious culprit: Kennewick Man himself.

That's right. He's trouble.

A simple Internet news search for "Kennewick Man" turns up countless stories of his misdeeds. The headlines listed here are all real, and they don't even begin to cover the scope of this one-skeleton crime spree. How much longer must our state suffer the depredations of this prehistoric malcontent?

I'm with the Native Americans. Let's get him back in the ground. The sooner, the better.

CK