Somewhere in the Skies - STRANGE WORLD with Christopher Garetano

Episode Date: August 12, 2019

On episode 121 of SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES, Ryan is joined once again by independent filmmaker, Christopher Garetano, to talk all about his new television series, Strange World. Garetano, whose award-winning film, Montauk Chronicles, inspired the hit show Stranger Things, has spent a lifetime searching for the truth behind some of America’s most unusual stories. Now, he begins a boots-on-the-ground investigation into the legends, mysteries and first-person accounts that fuel this country’s creepiest conspiracy theories and unexplained occurrences in the new Travel Channel series, Strange World. Over the course of eight hour-long episodes, Garetano will immerse himself in a world of the weird and bizarre, exploring everything from the alleged curse of James Dean’s death car, Little Bastard, to the extraordinary and unexplained disappearances on California’s Mount Shasta, to the legend of Polybius, a 1980’s arcade game supposedly created as a mind-control experiment gone amuck. Garetano runs us through the premiere episode concerning his ongoing investigation into Camp Hero and the Montauk Project, and then he gives us the inside scoop on some of the compelling episodes that will follow. Guest Bio: Christopher Garetano produced and directed several award-winning films, including the 2005 film, “Horror Business,” and the 2015 docudrama, “Montauk Chronicles,” which received awards for best documentary at the 2015 Philip K. Dick Film Festival and best picture at the Celludroid Film Festival. Garetano is the creator of the comic strip and anticipated graphic novel, “South Texas Blues,” originally published in Fangoria Magazine in 2012. In 2016, Garatano collaborated with Texas Crew Productions and HISTORY as an executive producer, host and director of re-creations on the television movie, “The Dark Files.” Garetano is also currently directing an episode of a new thriller anthology series with DIGA STUDIOS titled, “Fifty States of Fear.” Now, Garetano is passionately diving into his new dream project – “Strange World,” an investigative docu-series on Travel Channel. Garetano is a film graduate of the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. Follow him on Twitter @GARETANO7 Purchase tickets to Alien Con Dallas and use the promo code: SKIES at checkout for an exclusive discount. CLICK HERE Shop SAUCER BRAND now and use the promo code: SKIES for an exclusive discount: www.TheSaucerBrand.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/somewhereskies To watch ROSWELL: MYSTERIES DECODED for free, CLICK HERE  Website: www.somewhereintheskies.com YouTube Channel: CLICK HERE Official Store: CLICK HERE Order Ryan's Book by CLICKING HERE Twitter: @SomewhereSkies Instagram: Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/somewhere-in-the-skies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the show, Strange World with Chris Geratano. Every road leads to that tower and what they're hiding from. You have nothing to hide. Open it up. Take us for a tour and we'll go home. We don't work at some top secret government facility or doing. We're using the town as part of the experiments. They wanted to split the barn.

People just walking around like zombies. You're going to come. There are real brutes within the government. If you don't think that's real, you better do your homework. It is very real. My name is Christopher Garretano, and I've spent my whole life exploring the darkest mysteries on Earth. Following that passion, I made a film that helped inspire the hit series, Stranger Things. Now I'm digging even deeper.

into our strange world. This is Somewhere in the Skies with Ryan Sprigg. Welcome to Somewhere in the Skies. I'm your host, Ryan Sprigg. Chris Garatano is a filmmaker. His award-winning film, Montau Chronicles, inspired the hit show, Stranger Things. Chris has spent a lifetime searching for the truth

behind some of America's most unusual stories. Now, he begins a boots-on-the-ground investigation into the legends, mysteries, and first-person accounts that fuel this country's creepiest conspiracy theories and unexplained occurrences in our strange world. Today we talk in-depth about how the show came to be Chris's further investigation into Camp Hero and the Montauk Project and what's to come on future episodes of Strange World. Chris, thank you so much for joining me today. on Somewhere in the Skies. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, we had you on a while ago, man. I went back into the archives.

We're looking at episode 24 of Somewhere in the Skies, and now we're on episode 120, so it has been a fantastic journey, man. I'm on a listener, too, and I really dig the show, and you work really hard, and a lot of your presentations are an example of your hard work. I think that's required,

when investigating these subjects. You have to be diligent. I hear a lot of podcasts these days, and they seem quite lackadaisical, and it's like, you know, you're very involved. You have character and style to the show. Much appreciated. It's a pleasure to be on. Well, thank you, I mean, likewise for you,

and we will definitely get to that creative process when it comes to what you're working on now. We're going to be mostly talking about your new television series, Strange World, premiering on August 11th on the Travel Channel, But before we get to that, man, I highly suggest listeners go back. They listen to episode 24 of somewhere in the skies where we talked all about Camp Hero, the Montau Project, the Montauk Chronicles. And we'll be covering that a little bit today, but that's where I would turn people to for a crash course on just exactly what inspired the hit show, Stranger Things. And it's all because of this man, Chris Garitano.

So, Chris, how did Strange World come to be? Can you give us that origin story? I made a special for History Channel called The Dark Files, collaborated with Texas Crew Productions on it. And it did very well in the ratings. And it was a continued investigation of the camp hero experiments or the alleged camp hero experiments, which I explored in my docudrama Montau Chronicles. So in many ways, the Dark Files, especially, I made. for History Channel was a sequel to that.

And, you know, it was never fully intended to become a series, but that was talked about at the time. And so I kind of waited around. I've never won to wait around. I'm always, you know, for me to survive as a soul, as a creative soul, I need to work on something. And so I just continued working on other projects. And then I got a call from my collaborative production company.

company and they said that Travel Channel was interested in working with me on something. And there were a couple of things thrown my way that were somewhat tantamount to the dark files, but exploring other underground bases. And my reply was, you know, I'm not an underground base guy. That's not what I am as a human being or a soul. I explored the Montauk project because that was something I was interested in. And I spent so much time on it because I really became obsessed with the subject matter and getting it right as a filmmaker on the movie itself, on the docketrava.

So I was done with it after that. But even before my interest in cinema, I had an interest in the mysteries of the unknown. It's something that I've held close to my heart and it has fueled my imagination since I was a child. So my offer to them was Strange World. It was called Strange World. I put a presentation together in several different ways and said, my dream project. This is what I want to do. And I actually woke up out of a, a short nap, and just started writing things down and starting with the title. And the title itself,

you know, it's perfect for what it is for a series that is intended to have variety. Okay, not the same thing every episode, to have longevity, to have style, to have, you know, because the shows of my youth, you know, like reruns of, in search of Leonard Nimoy, which is foundation in my opinion. Unsolved Mysteries, Robert Stack, you know, those shows had an atmosphere to them. And it was that same atmosphere with artwork and a lot of the mystery books that I read as a kid that drew me in. So my main purpose in the beginning was to bring that back because I think a lot of the shows have lost that completely. It's like the same investigation over and over and over and over again. And I'm not sure.

why anyone's interested anymore. So I thought maybe we can bring these things back because it's the content's very important. The depth and the the research is very important. But if that's not attached to some kind of atmosphere, because there's another part of us as human beings that we get stimulated by these things. And I don't think it detracts from how important the investigation is if you add this atmosphere. So that's the basic DNA of Strange World. So I, you know, I am creator, executive producer. It's now a collaboration, and I knew I was submitting it to a collaboration, but the basic DNA of that was always respected by Texas Crew Productions and by Travel Channel.

And this enormous group of people that made the show, as you know, you're working on one yourself. It's a lot of moving parts, but somehow it retained that DNA, and everybody respected that in the end. We had two incredible cinematographers for the investigative scenes, which you don't normally see. Ryan Rude and Nate Horowitz, those guys worked so hard. You know, I mean, obviously, we were hired for a job and they were paid, but I was with them. We traveled like family and those guys worked above and beyond because they knew the show was special. And I think

everybody else felt the same way, you know, everybody in post, everybody in production to bring the audience this, you know, unique show, something that, in part hasn't been done before. and in many ways needed to come back. And so here's the great test. It airs beginning next week. And if the audience responds to something fresh, you know, I'm not a star. Many people don't even know who the hell I am.

And so they're taking a chance on this unknown guy. You know, like, but I think sometimes when you find a star at a host your paranormal show, you are set for failure. Because it won't have longevity. And it's just this face you're trying to sell a product with. And in my case,

I have a direct personal attachment to these stories. Every single story was picked by me. It's something that I've always been interested in or have a personal connection to. So that's the beginning of Strange World. That's amazing, man. You touched on so many sort of sensitive topics when it comes to these phenomena and television, entertainment, as it were. And, you know, you're right.

There's so many shows out there now creeping up about investigative, you know, looking into UFOs, the parents. paranormal or mysteries and everything. And some of them, you know, they last. They're great. They're rich. But a lot of them, like you said, they're just so surface level and they're so offensive to the audience, in my opinion.

Maybe it's because I'm so steeped in this stuff all the time. But even for the mainstream public or the person who's never really looked into this stuff, if they see one more show about a certain UFO. case or, uh, you know, the Amityville house. Like, it's like, okay, we've seen this over and over and over again. So I think you're right. Seeing something that you have poured your blood, sweat, and tears into with strange world, seeing your style, your vision, and your interests in cases come to life. Uh, that's what we need. And that was so obvious when I watched the first episode of your show, uh, which brings us right back to Montauk with them.

episode titled The Zombie Boys. I love that title, but did you make the titles for the episodes? You know, I picked all the subjects, but there are a lot of creative people that joined in on this thing. And so there were several titles before we ended up with zombie boys, which I like too. I think it's really cool, but I did not pick that title. Okay, okay. Yeah, it could be a punk band, I think, too. For sure, it would be a cool punk band. Yeah. So, okay, so we're returning to Montauk in the first episode, and we don't want to give away too much before the show premieres, but there are some really good new things that you discovered with this episode. You know, we had the Dark Files, we have Montau Chronicles, but a lot of the new stuff came in the form of Brian Minnick, and this is what I found really interesting with your episodes. So I guess without giving too much away, who is Brian Minnick? What did he? bring to your investigation into Montauk?

Sure. Brian was always a great contributor, the last couple of things we did. So he was with us in the Dark Files. And I think the, see, I was always aware of an underground, a camp hero, an official underground, one that, you know, I don't think is any great mystery. There was definitely some kind of access tunnel system. There were maintenance tunnels, you know, like this stuff doesn't spark the imagination or a or point in any kind of way to a conspiracy what does and here's the most i think this is the gem in brian's collection is the evidence of a structure that was completely obliterated and is no longer there anymore and brian seems to have the only evidence of that and it is evidence that there was a structure there. It was a small house. And on the interior of the house, there were several rooms

that were all professionally painted a different elaborate pattern, one of which is, let's say, these large black and white bars next to each other. Then there's all these different paisley patterns on the walls. Then there's another one that has these weird kind of spray-painted patterns, but they were professionally painted. You know, they were marked off. You know, the electrical sockets were taped off. This is something that kids didn't do. And it's in line. We checked with professionals

that have participated in drug experiments before. And it's in line with those things. And so I think that's a considerable piece of evidence. Even Barry Eisler, you know, whose ex-CIA said, this is really curious. Even Steve Volk, who's a super skeptic from the Washington Post, you know, he said and agreed. We all agreed that this stuff that Brian brought forward was really crucial if anyone was going to do an investigation. Of course, the second part of that was achieved in the dark files was the geophysicists that came down and

measured, you know, beneath the ground with electric resistivity imagery and found an enormous man-made structure that contained iron ore that proves that there's something, you know, there's something under the ground that's not supposed to be there. These weren't access tunnels, by the way. So I feel like we found between the two specials, you know, Montau Chronicles was more like a meditation on the story and the ideas, and I allowed these elderly men to tell their tale, right? And I never really told the audience what to think. In the case of the Dark Files and in the first episode of Strange World, their investigations. And we did find things. And it was also a way to, as you know, to segue over into something that was more tangible and that was confirmed by an official

institute, which was the research of Michael Persinger, which is very similar to the things that Preston Nichols described that were being used in these mind control programs. So I think all of this stuff collectively is the best evidence that anyone's ever found to date on the Montauk Project, on the alleged Montauk project. You know, I know, Nichols passed away last summer. Duncan Cameron passed away a few months ago. And I really think that was the end of anybody that may have had something legit to offer in terms of evidence of this project. You know, there's some people out there that claim they were there.

I don't believe it. You know, I think some people just like to say they were there. Just like, you know, some gentlemen wrote books about their experiences, Vietnam. And we find out later that they were never in the war. That happens a lot in the U.S. UFO field and uphology, you know, like people just lie. But it doesn't mean that the subject is not true. It just means there are a lot of liars out there for whatever reason. Right. It's sort of sifting through and filtering out the, you know, the people who can't stand the test of time

when it comes to evidence, prove for, you know, validity. I mean, there was a really controversial part in this first episode of you speaking to one of the former Montauk boys. What was that experience like. Okay. And I, and once before I spoke to a gentleman who uses an alias called James Bruce and I felt he was very legit. Here's the thing, Ryan, like, anyone that claims they were a Montauk boy is now, whether officially articulating or not, they have to say that they went through great trauma. And if you've met people who've gone through great trauma who were abused, who were, you know, horribly addicted to just drugs, you know, had them in a stranglehold, things like that. Like, they are somewhat jaded in the end, even if they come out of it.

If they come out of it, they're left with scars, you can see them. And so I've met several people along the way you claim they were Montauk boys, and they seem just fine to me. They seem too relaxed, too happy, too unscathed. And in the case of James Bruce, he was, he's a scarred guy, you know, like he really is. somebody who I believe went through some kind of trauma. The gentleman that spoke to us for Strange World, you know, he has some things to lose. He has a job to lose. He has a reputation to lose to come on television and say that, you know, he was part of a latter experiment that happened with Preston Nichols. There were a lot of questions that were arising. He seemed

genuinely uncomfortable about it and reluctant to talk about some details because if you really look into the Montauk project, there's some really horrific things that everybody claims happened. It was absent from that first book that came out. And that's really why I explored it for Montau Chronicles and beyond, because I think a lot of people were afraid to talk about these things that may have happened. Yeah, he was an interesting guy. He claimed that he was part of experiments that happened later with Preston Nichols that he has these kind of dreamlike

memories that are in line with a lot of things that everyone else who claimed they were part of it said happened. And do I believe the man? You know, I start by questioning, well, what is the motivation in this? It cannot be just for a moment to be on

television in this man's case. If he was really profiting off of it, I think if he was writing many books about it and kind of very comfortable in his shoes and smiling during interviews about these things. I just feel like when you're traumatized, you're timid, you're afraid to talk about something. You're emotional about it. You know, if you have that built-in lie detector and a lot of us do, you can really look through any kind of presentation and see some truth in there. And so I saw that also in this gentleman, too. He wasn't as jaded as the gentleman. As the gentleman

I met previous, who I felt was the most legit example of Montauk Boy. But I felt there was something legit about him as well, because I really weigh the consequences of what, you know, he might have to pay in the end of telling this tale. Some people don't care. They're comfortable being liars, but this gentleman didn't strike me as that. I'd have to agree with you. He came across very genuine, and I run across this in the UFO field as well a lot, too, Chris. is this idea that these people coming forward claiming, you know, either close encounters

or quote-unquote abduction experiences, a lot of them have absolutely nothing to gain from this. They've only lost, you know, friends, family, jobs. And it's those people, I think, it's one thing to read it in a book or see it on a documentary, but when you meet these people, like you have face-to-face and you see their mannerisms and how they react, you know, those very human elements when they're recalling these things. That's when you can really sort of cut to the core of both the story. And if they're telling the truth or not, like, no, neither of us are human lie detector tests. But at the end of the day, looking these people in the eyes and hearing them talk about this and know what they have to lose,

sometimes that's all we can really rely on. That's what we have. in this case. And we have that and coupled with, I feel, true evidence. You know, like, it's hard to achieve evidence. And then we have the associative situations like Holmesburg Prison, M.K. Ultra, things they were able to prove that were very similar and happened around, somewhat around the same time. So if you can look back at those things and collect all of this stuff and lay it out, it seems to me that at the very least something happened at Camp Hero. And like you had mentioned a few moments ago, in Strange World, you'll see some resistance

by officials over there, which I did an episode of Ancient Aliens previous to this. And it was supposed to be a much larger investigation. And they didn't grant the permits to Ancient Aliens. They kind of just disappeared on us. And they did grant the permits for the Dark Files and for Strange World. But the same gentleman who granted those permits put up a big resistance to any equipment being brought past the gate. And so we ask, well, what is the reason? The reason is it's too dangerous.

Dangerous. Why? Falling debris. Okay. You have more than 400 yards away this tower. There is not a chance any falling debris from that tower is going to hit anybody. even 50 to 100 feet into the, past the gate

towards this large sage radar tower. And so none of that makes any sense. And then there was a day in the wintertime for the dark files that we were there where all of a sudden, after 13 years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is doing this enormous operation to keep us out.

It's just, here is the bottom line. There, if you have any kind of geophysical equipment that can see underneath the ground, if you're doing any kind of serious investigation, there will be a resistance. You will not be able to bring that equipment over there. And you will not be able to check because they are hiding something. What they're hiding is, and this is what I could say. You know, I can't say, okay, they're hiding an alien ship.

They're hiding, you know, dead bodies, which even, you know, the geophysicists found some evidence that might support that. Oh, God. Yeah, that definitely, let's just say definitely some kind of grave site. Okay. But what they, what is being hidden is an enormous structure underneath the ground that would inspire many questions that they would not be able to answer because then we'd have to look further and say, okay, well, you said there was no base here. There's a face.

So if there's a giant face, maybe there really were experiments and most likely there were. So, yeah, I believe there's a bigger structure underneath the ground and I believe it's being protected. That's up to whoever's going to continue this investigation because I'm personally done with it. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, I understand. I understand why, Chris, because I mean, this has been a lifelong pursuit for you, this case, this entire Montauck thing. And I think what was really interesting, sort of to wrap up the zombie boys part of this episode, is you're putting yourself with Strange World right smack dab in the middle of this stuff when it comes to the technology that may have been used in some of these things you're covering.

So for Montauk, for example, you know, Preston Nichols said that electromagnetic energy was used to affect the minds of the Montauk boys. And what did you do? You uncovered a very interesting thing called the God Helmet. and you put yourself right, I guess, in the shoes and in the helmet of what these Montauk boys might have gone through. So could you maybe sort of wrapping up this part of it, Chris? Tell us a little about what that experience was like. Of course.

So the idea was to revisit Montauk, to let the audience know who I was and what I did for many years. And that was a way to segue the audience into the journey of Strange World, which is, you know, one-hour episodes into the unknown and every topic is different. So the later chapter in episode one is bringing us to something that is very similar to the experiments that Preston Nichols claimed were used at Montauk. But this is a legit experiment and that it was used at a university and developed at a university by a scientist named Michael Persinger. I originally read about Persinger in a book called Spook by Mary Roach. And she took part in an experiment at Laurentian University in Canada. And Persinger designed several things. One was called the hauntbox.

And what was so interesting to me was the conclusion of this conversation was that Mary Roach went in the haunt box. The haunt box was supposed to bombard. It was an airtight, uh, sea environment were about the size of a freight elevator where someone would sit and the subject would sit and they would be bombarded with these heavy electromagnetic waves. And it was supposed to simulate a haunting. You were supposed to hear things, perhaps see apparitions. Subjects had seen things inside the hauntbox. This is a real, you know, experiment at a university.

And they had results in person to believe that perhaps hauntings and maybe even UFO abductions in people's sleep were caused by disturbances in electromagnetic fields and geomagnetic fields. Okay, so when Mary Roach did experience some audible hallucinations, she said to him at the end, just a question, because her book was contemplations on the afterlife and other things beyond. So she asked Persinger, who unfortunately passed away last summer, she asked him, actually around the same time as Preston Nichols, Persinger died. she asked Michael Persinger, well, do you think it's just some kind of, you know, effect on the mind, a stimulation, or are these geomagnetic fields actually opening up doorways to other dimensions? You know, to achieve the grant and achieve the money, why not say, well, this is just causing a hallucination or whatever?

And I don't mean to offend any of the scientists that continue his work or anybody that developed this. It's true science, you know. But could it be that we are stimulating another environment? You know, HP Lovecraft wrote about this many years ago. So many different science fiction writers wrote about this. You know, is it possible that these fields that are bombarding the brain are actually heightening psychic abilities? And so a gentleman named Todd Murphy, who created another version of what Persinger designed and approved of, because it was a colleague of Persinger's,

helped design the God Helmet. This was another version of what Michael Persinger invented. And so the God Helmet is also very similar to the technology that almost tantamount to the technology that Preston Nichols described in all the years talking about the Montauk project, that this heavy electromagnetic energy was used to help heighten psychic abilities, was helped even at times to fracture the mind. So I was encouraged to take part in a Montauk type slash Michael Persinger Todd Murphy experiment at the end of this episode.

And I did. And I am not making this up. I have had effects residuals ever since. Really? Yes. Wow. So you can attest that this technology does leave a lasting effect on. And would you say your memory or just your senses or everything in between?

All right. So the results that I had on it began with an enormous – well, you'll hear me describe what my initial experience is in the episode, and that's what it was. But afterward, and to this day – well, immediately afterward, I had a massive headache that lasted maybe two hours or whatever. maybe because I had some caffeine that I wasn't supposed to have or whatever during the experiment. But I wasn't expecting that. That wasn't pleasant.

So I don't recommend it unless you really go through the literature and even consult with Todd Murphy before you use this thing. I've done two sessions of this, one off camera and one on, one off camera to prepare for the one that was on camera. Because I wanted to do it right. And I really wanted to experience something. See, you know, like we have a technique that was designed by all of us. collectively that Ryan Rood and Nate Horowitz executed as cinematographers

that you'll see in the show that yes, you know, these are legitimately shot the way you see it, but then they would come in and get coverage immediately after the moment happens, so you would have this beautiful coverage of the moment as well. And so it would help

be more expressive and that was our goal in all of this. So you'll see these scenes are very expressive because they are, but they're not staged. You know, they're a mixture of something that happened right there in real time and then immediately after so we could get that coverage and really establish that atmosphere. So I just wanted to say that. And also done in post because that was our goal to kind of bring that atmosphere to you and

not just have stagnant shots or iPhone shots of what was happening. Right, right. And I mean, you know, whatever you're experiencing inside your head, you know, we will never truly know. But to sort of bring it to life for an audience watching you, I completely, understand why that would be so important. Sure, sure. And what I described was exactly what I felt. Now, since then, I've had these moments where I have these kind of micro-nap moments. Like, if I'm tired, I'll nod off immediately be in a dream state. And I'll start to have these profound visions in my

dreams. Like, I have very vivid dreams anyway. But since using the God helmet, I'm telling you that I've never experienced this before. And it hasn't stopped, really. And I'm not, I, you know, I actually have the God helmet here with me. And I have not used it. The guys at the collaborative production company have joked that, you know, you're going to go in for another dose. And I'm like, listen, I'll do other experiments. I'm not doing that again. I don't know what it's going to do to me, you know. Right, man. Well, that's really fascinating, the fact that it's had such residual effects. Yeah, let's keep that helmet in the closet. it for now.

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Receive 20% off your entire purchase now when you use the code skies at the saucerbrand.com. know everyone that you believe and get your saucer gear now. That's the saucerbrand.com. Keep looking somewhere in the skies, and remember to elevate your craft. Well, moving away, Chris, from Zombie Boys, there's a couple other episodes that I saw in the upcoming list

that really caught my attention, and another one was called Game Over. Now, I'd heard of this urban legend in the past, and I never really knew what to make of it, So it was really cool to see that you were going to be covering this. The Urban Legend of the arcade game, Polybius, and you end this idea with literally the fabric of reality. So can you tell us a little about what it will be covered in this episode? Yeah, I mean, we have very heady subjects,

but we have incredible guests throughout every episode. So it's like sometimes you get the experts. And I like experts. You know, experts are great, but I really like people who are, very well versed in subject matter that is at least somewhat tangible. And so in the case of the Polybius episode, like, it, you know, it covers this urban legend that surfaced in Portland, Oregon on the arcade scene about a video game that maybe was created by some kind of rogue government faction to be, it was a very first prototype to put out

to the public to influence and control the minds of the person playing it. Kids. Now, today, we flash forward to today. You have Fortnite. You have all these things that kids are addicted to. And so I wanted to see if there was any weight or truth to this legend because to me, it sounds quite believable. And so throughout our journey, I mean, we spoke to Noel Bushnell, the co-founder of Atari, who Atari, the game Battlezone, was used by the military and even developed, co-developed by the military to train tank drivers. So it's not starting with that concept that the government is involved in video games.

It's not far-fetched at all. It's very real. There are very few regulations on games, and Bushnell believed that Polybius in its basic concept is real. And you'll see his interview in the show. But so that's what we do. like we're not just speculating on an urban legend. We're truly investigating this thing.

And so we were looking for the game. We went to Portland. We were talked around, you know, but I believe that those games were removed if they did exist. And I do believe something like that existed. So we ended up speaking with people who were, we went to Seattle. We talked to people who were in a,

almost like a rehab center for people who were affected by games. And I think, you know, you'll see in the episode, but ultimately what we found through this entire journey is 10 times more terrifying than the legend of Polybius. Wow, man. Well, that sounds fascinating. I can't wait to see where that one goes. I know.

I'm sure Polyvius was only scratching the surface of what was probably a darker thing, I would assume. And it does exist. And again, like, I want to make very clear, I play games. I have an Oculus quest. I'm in the VR world. I was a ninja the other night, shooting people in a subway station and using my sword and everything, you know, futuristic, you know, anime ninja. I love that stuff, but I'm not addicted. I can put it down for three months and never touch it again, and I love it that much, you know, like I think it's amazing. I think the virtual world, there's so many things, especially for people in cinema and community, and it might be the thing that breaks that sedentary, you know, taboo of sitting and playing video games all day and actually thrusts you into this kind of physical environment. You have to be the thing that breaks. You have a bit of to communicate with people because there are avatars. But the danger is we're entering a world now that there could be a puppet master in there. There could be a Trojan horse in there, messing with

us. And now you have this headset on, and it's directly affecting your brain. And we explore these things in strange world, because there are technologies being developed for virtual reality right now that will blow your mind. You know, we went to a lab for one of the episodes in Boston. and we went to a lab where I tried on a virtual system. You literally have telekinesis in the virtual world. You were using your mind to move things. And not your eyes, not your hands, not the controllers that come with the VR systems, your mind.

And you'll see in the episode as to how this works, but it's real. And this is the beginning of it. Think of where it's going to be in 10 years from now. Oh, man. I can't even imagine. None of us can, I would assume. That's really fascinating. I can't wait to see that one, Chris.

We're moving away from brainwashing into possible curses. You're covering the story of James Dean in his infamous car. Can you tell us a little about this episode, The Legend Behind Little Bastard? Sure, mind you, this, and, you know, I grew up watching James Dean films. My mom was a big Natalie Wood fan. My dad was into James Dean, so I grew up watching those movies all the time. I had not, I knew of his tragic death. not heard of the legend of little bastard, which was the name of Dean's Portia 550 spider that he

died in, unfortunately. I didn't know that until not too long ago. And immediately I thought of Stephen King's Christine. You know, I was like, wow, did this story influence King to write Christine? And I know there are other stories out there that allegedly influenced King, but this one is very similar in a way, in ways, and in that curse. So this story begins oddly enough, in Los Angeles, only two days before James Dean died, drives up to a restaurant and runs into Sir Alec Guinness, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Thelma Moss, who was an actress at the time, but who eventually became the archetype for all of the female paranormal investigators in everything from the entity to poltergeist to insidious. That was Thelma Moss at that stage,

because she was the head of parapsychology over at UCLA. Just a little tidbit we don't really touch on in the episode but you know I talked about it. I talked about it throughout the process is that it's weird that this experience I'm about to explain

that started the whole alleged curse of Little Bastard. Sir Alec Guinness looked at James Dean as he pulled up in the Porsche 550 Spider and that that car was named Little Bastard after Jack Warner had told James Dean to get off of his set

because Dean was parked in there in a trailer and he said, get that little bastard off my set. So Dean named his car after what Warner called him. So Dean walks into the restaurant to show his new car to Sir Alec Guinness. And Guinness later said that he felt something come over him, some kind of force that took over his mouth and said,

if you get in that car, you're going to be dead in two days. And now who says that when you're, I got a new car recently. I was excited to show people, you know, this new Mustang. Like, I love it, you know? And it's like, who looks at you and says, don't get back in that car? You're going to die, you know?

That's a horrible thing to say to somebody. And Guinness said that he was taken over by something. This was a premonition. This was something very strong. So that began the legend. The car, as you'll learn in the story, went on to be the source of tragedy for a lot of people. And this is real stuff.

You know, after Dean's accident, after this unfortunate accident, Dean died in the crash. And his driver, Ralph Wuderick, was horribly injured in rehab for a year. This car was taken by a doctor in Los Angeles who utilized the engine in a lotus that he was about to race. And his buddy cannibalized parts from it in his other. Porsche 550 spider. Both men, just those two men, in the race that they got into, got in horrible crashes, and that his buddy who was driving the other Porsche 550 spider died in the crash. So I won't say much more because I want you to learn more about it in the episode, but this car went on and on and on until George Barris, the great car designer, designed a Batmobile

and Greece Lightning and all these other cool cars, got his hands on it. And this is where the mystery begins. Because Barris was taking it around in auto shows as like a preventative for, you know, people to be careful while they're driving. You know, James Dean died while he was driving fast. And so, but little bastard continued to injure people, apparently, you know, a truck driver got an accident. He was thrown from the truck and the chassis fell over and landed on this and killed him. A fire started in a garage somewhere and the place almost burnt down to the ground, but little bastard was unaffected. A little girl was at one of the displays of the car, the chassis of the car at a auto museum, and it collapsed and broke her hip. People cut themselves on it, got hurt.

And then 60 years ago, the car disappeared. So the episode is setting you up with that story, more details, and exploring the curse and looking for the car. I mean, I genuinely wanted to find this thing, and we really, really looked for it. it. And there was some revelations along the way, and I will leave that slate blank so you can see our journey, see how we approached it, see how we discussed the history and other Hollywood related curses that might even be directly related. You know, you have to, as you know, as an investigator into the fringe and to the unknown, you have to keep an open mind to everything, every bit of information that comes your way. You have to say, well, I wonder, is this possibility?

And I always, you know, with a healthy skepticism, of course, but I never, you know, I understand why staunch skeptics go into things and dive deep into these subjects because it's a waste of time. They're never going to believe anything. And you're exploring the fringe, so you have to be open to it a little bit. And so there are some odd circumstances in all of these cases, but we start with facts. The fact is there was some really bad luck with anything related to the law. little bastard after that accident. There was a premonition by Alec Guinness.

The guy scored to it, you know, until his death. He didn't have to profit off of that. He was a famous actor. You know, so these things I take into consideration and also it's exciting to explore these mysteries, you know? And things that like, again,

you don't really see on mainstream television. Again, we see the same ghost stories, the same UFO cases. But you're really tapping into what the title conveys, our strange world, and these things that can be documented, can be proven. So that's what's really fascinating.

I can't wait to see what you discovered in the end with that one. Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. Well, the last episode I kind of want to touch on brings us to one of our past guests here on Summer on the Skies, and that's NK. Kranda, an experienced or researcher that looks at UFOs, alien abductions, paranormal phenomena. And could you maybe tease a little about what this episode is going to be about? Okay, so all of these stories I have a personal connection to or some kind of like really strong interest in.

I pick these subjects and even, you know, possibilities for season two or even more elaborate. But this episode is very personal at times. And when I was a kid, I had a pretty profound experience of 14 years old. I woke up early in the morning, late at night, you know, 3 a.m. around that time to this loud whispering. It happened for two nights. It didn't happen during the day. Never happened before that. And never happened again after those two nights at that time.

But I continued to have experiences on and off throughout my years. youth at around that time in the middle of the night I would wake up and hear something or one time much later I saw a woman walk from one room to another in my apartment in Michigan and disappear you know just out of the blue one night you know and again I I'm not a drug user I don't I don't and I'm not crazy I'd be crazy all the time crazy doesn't stop you're crazy every minute when you're crazy but no I mean I I I saw these things, I experienced these things. And so this episode explores, why is there something about your physiology around that time, around 3 a.m., that causes this, that it could be a hallucination, that it could be something that you experience because of the body at that time or your sleep patterns at that time?

Or is there really something to the legend of the witching hour? And why are so many experiencers having those experiences in the middle of the night in their sleep? You know, these abduction experiences or these haunting experiences. And so we explore that concept. It's really the concept of the witching hour. Why is that particular time so intense? And I actually go to, talking to Anne Krona in the episode about her own experiences and she brings an experience, an experiencer with her, somebody who was encountered by, some very dark energy, something that was very heavy, something that was coming after her.

You know, I've had these feelings before. I've had these experiences myself. I can, I can't tell you what they are. When I was a kid, I thought it was a haunting. I thought there was a ghost in my house. You know, when I experienced that thing in Michigan, I thought it was, you know, maybe a woman that died in the apartment before I was renting it. But now I don't know. We We live on a multi-dimensional plane. We could be peeking into other times, other dimensions. I'm not sure. But in the episode, I go to a sleep clinic, and they wanted to monitor me, you know,

scientifically what happens to me while I'm asleep at that time. And just to see if I had any experiences, I did have, well, I won't tell you what happens. But, you know, we really try. We try to explore the subject scientifically throughout each episode. But also keep it interesting and keep it fun. Really, you know, we can't ever lose that. We can't lose that atmosphere. We can't lose what drew us to these things initially.

It does not delegitimize our investigations. I think people become very crotchety after a while and they forget what inspired them in the first place. And so they look down upon maybe the entertainment aspect of these investigations. I disagree. I don't think they should be stupid. You know, I think it should be intelligent. I think it should be stylistic and beautiful and interesting and it should have depth. But I also don't believe the other extreme where it's just so stagnant and so clinical.

And it's all information. And it's like calm down. We need to bring people into these things. We need to get them interested in. This is a format that requires that. It's a visual format, an audible format. If you just wanted it to be literature or text, write an academic book on the subject. but don't bring it into the world of television or movies or, you know, even podcasts.

Like, your podcast is interesting. That's why I listen to it. You know, you're an interesting guy. Thank you. Yeah, you know, you thrive off of these things just like I do. So it's like we need that coupled with these mysteries. It inspires us. It sparks the imagination.

And one day, you know, it also motivates us to look into these things. And so that's what this. show is about and sometimes you know often you're not going to find the answers so it's the journey that i think is more interesting than the than the conclusion sometimes oh absolutely man i am a huge i'm a huge supporter of that idea that you know the the journey is far more important than the destination and uh you're right you're right when i was approached to uh work on our television series. They said to us, okay, we want you to take a UFO case from 1947 and make it interesting for a demographic of teenage girls from the age of 14 to like 21. Oh, man. Okay, how the hell are we going to do that?

But you know what? Our ratings went through the roof and they bought a series and you're right. That's fantastic. That's what you have to do. Right. Now, you hear that note and I think you did, I know you did the right thing is what you said was I'm not going to underestimate these teenage girls I'm going to assume they're they are intelligent they love interesting things they thrive off of mystery and that's what we're going to give them you know like not oh wow he said teenage girls well let's make something really dumb thin and repetitive no that's not what it is let's let's give these girls some credit right not only girls the credit but I mean I think a lot of the older guard as it were let's say in euphology or

just people interested in these esoteric topics, they tend to believe that kids or teenagers are dumb. You know, they live in this digital age where they're on their phones 24-7. They say, uh, and dude and man. I do that on my podcast all the time. And I get called out by like 50-year-old saying, you got to be more professional. You know what? It's my show. It's your show.

Do what you want with it. Do what you want with it. But at the same time, I think younger people are a lot more intelligent. than we give them credit for. So you're right. Never underestimate your audience. Don't offend them by saying, let's just cover the basics.

They're not going to understand any of the new stuff. No, let's challenge them. That's why we're creating these shows. It's not to just do the same thing over and over and over again. Like, if we're going to bring it to the mainstream, let's no longer make it mainstream by dumbing it down. Let's actually challenge them. Agreed.

I mean, think about it. You know, in search of they didn't say, well, we need to dumb this down. They said, let's give them a great show. And that's all you have to do. Your job is to give them a great show and put something forward that's worth having. And give them something interesting and excite them and give them something to explore and give them something to think about at night before when they shut the lights. You know, it's like, that's what we had as kids. So we need to give them the same thing.

I mean, when I went to sleep after watching your first episode, all I could think about was like, oh, God, am I going to start? having Montau dreams and nightmares, what's going to happen? So yes, if it can leave a lingering effect on you some way, somehow, make you think, make you Google the next morning what the Montauk project is or what little bastard is. Like, that's all you can ask for is for someone to not just say, oh, okay, go into bed. That's what she want. You want to make you think. Yeah, get excite them and let them go further explore these mysteries. And that's why I'm making this show. This is something I've wanted to do since I was a kid.

I'm sure the same with you. And we need to continue that tradition. It's like the torch was passed to us to do these things now. And so who said that we have to make the same thing? What I hope is, my goal isn't to obliterate the shows that are on TV right now. What I'd like to do, let's challenge. them and elevate them and make them change their formats. You know, it's either sink or swim at this point because I think the format is now done

to death and beyond. And it's time for it to change. Absolutely. Shake things up. I couldn't agree more. Well, you did mention further exploration, Chris. If given a season two of Strange World, what do you want to cover, man? What are the things that you just weren't able to do in season one?

Okay, I don't want to say too much because it is his top secret right now, but let's say this, continuing the variety, continuing the adventure being even more creative with our recreations being even more creative with the cinematography during the investigative scenes, because often those things are very handheld and shaky. There is a technique, and there is a way to shoot it almost like cinema. And even in its construction, I want to go further with it. I want to go further with the style. I want to go further with the look. I want to really work hard and achieve to see if we can find things. You know, I think we were really close to finding that, you know, different things in these episodes, finding evidence. At times we did, at times we were super close, which is even more suspenseful, I think. And so raise the stakes, make it more suspenseful, make it more dangerous. Do things that no one's ever done before in a show like this. That's what I want to do for season two. push it even harder. I don't want to do a season two unless I could do it better. I love that. I love hearing that. Sort of wrapping things up here, can you maybe tell us a little about your other project you're working on titled 50 States of Fear? Okay, here, this is a pretty neat thing, and it's evolving right now. So 50 States of Fear is currently being produced by a production company in New York,

also Sam Ramee, Jeffrey Katzenberg, all got involved. And I, um, I, was asked to be a part of it. And I was writing a fictional version of the Montauk project, my take on it with characters, awesome characters, awesome story. I love writing about it. I'm kind of, it's excruciating for me to continue to investigate Montauk. Like I encourage people to go where, take it where we left off. And I'm happy to help anybody or consult in anyone's investigation.

I'm encouraging them to go and do it. But for me, I'm finished. So, but in the fictional world, I've got this great story. And so this studio was interested in working with me on it as a series. And so they found 50 States of Fear as a way to kind of maybe be a, to bring more interest in it at that time. But now that Strange World is happening, and, you know, a lot of things have happened since I began those discussions with 50 states and all of that. It seems like the prospect of this fictional version is becoming stronger. And that's all I'm going to say right now.

But, yeah, 50 States of Fears and Anthology series that I was invited to be a part of in direct and write an episode, which I did. So I'll tell you more a little bit down the road. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's so cool to see, like, your world's colliding now between, you know, what is ostensibly fact and what could be fiction. So I can't wait to hear more about that. Yes. And then I have some pure fiction I'm writing that it's always this transformative story.

I don't think stories should just be violent for violence's sake. There should be some kind of transformation or journey that a character goes through. So I do have several other things in motion, another series, another fictional series, and a movie. that probably will start rolling at some point this year. Designed to be worked around the other projects, but I'm really excited about this movie. Awesome. You never stop. You never stop. When do you sleep?

I find time every now and then to sleep. I've been that way for years, and I seem to have all this energy, so I might as well use it while I have it. Absolutely. That is a good point, man. Let's use it while we have it, because it may not last forever. No. Well, Chris, where can we? find all of your work, Montau Chronicles, everything you're up to? What's like, is there one hub

for everything? I would say go to Montaukronicles.com. I have a graphic novel coming out later this year that was originally published in Fangoria Magazine as a strip for a year, and we're releasing the book finally. It's called South Texas Blues. Right now, I just have a South Texas Blues Facebook up where you can see panels that were originally published Fangoria, but we're going to be releasing the book later, so I'll start advertising and everything. But I'm really excited about that. And that was always intended to be a movie.

So at some point, I think after we released the book, we will make the film. Yeah, the next logical step. I love it. Well, Chris, Strange World premieres on Sunday, August 11th, at 10 p.m. on the Travel Channel. And I just want to say this, man. There's been a huge uptick in paranormal UFO TV.

shows as of late and some of them will survive. Many of them will probably fall into obscurity, but, you know, having only watched the first episode of Strange World, it's clear how much blood, sweat, tears that you put into this passion project. I know this will not only survive, but it'll probably thrive longer than most of these shows. So I can't wait to see where you're headed next, man. And I can't... Thank you. Thank you. I can't thank you enough for coming on somewhere in the skies. Thank you so much, Ryan. Much appreciated. and I hope you're right. I hope the audience likes it as much as you did.

I have no doubt. That's it for this week's episode. Thanks again to Chris Garretano for coming on. Be sure to check out his work at mtkronicles.com and follow him on Twitter at Garitano 7. If you haven't already, please take a few moments to subscribe, rate, and review someone in the skies on Apple Podcasts.

On your Android apps, or wherever you get the show. It helps us gain. visibility and find new listeners. I can't stress enough how much this actually helps the show. So thank you in advance. If you want to help support the show, please consider becoming a Patreon subscriber today. You get bonus episodes, bonus content, early editions of main shows, and tons of other rewards. To learn more and to become a patron, visit patreon.com slash somewhere skies. We're on Twitter at SomewhereSkies and Instagram at SomewhereSkies pod. Be sure to check out the premiere episode of Mysteries Decoded on Tuesday, August 13th on the CW Network.

Check your local listings for times and stations. The show will also be available to stream for free on the CWC app. Just visit cwc.com to learn more. We've worked so hard on the show to bring you new takes on some of America's greatest mysteries. So please tune in and let me know what you think. Thank you as always to the E1 podcast. Network, Rogue Planet, KGRA Radio, and especially to you for listening. I'll see you here next week.

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