The first annual Planet X Convention was a smashing success! Upwards of forty guests attended, and let me express much gratitude for the tireless efforts of hostess Signora Sintia Coconato and her two sophisticated and handsome twin sons, Justino Rando (JR) and Vincenzo (Vince) Coconato. Springfield, Missouri, has now officially become the "Planet X Capital Of The World". The news about the existence of Planet X will soon pervade the "grapevine" of otherwise fundamentalist Christian Springfield, no doubt about it. As Mao Tse-Tung once wrote in THE LITTLE RED BOOK, "The true revolutionary works like an invisible fish in the sea." But this convention was and always will be primarily a "social" convention, not a "business" convention.
A decision was made to establish a "Vanguard Council" to welcome the coming arrival of Planet X Nibiru. Planet X Nibiru List-Members who attended the convention have been selected to lead this Council as its Vanguard. In order to become a member of the Council, it is compulsory that you attend a Planet X Convention. Next year's convention is tentatively scheduled for Halloween Weekend, 28-31 October 2004. In terms of fall foliage colors, although many of the trees looked spectacular, this year we were about a week early for the peak of the colors. It has been just too hot lately. Sunday afternoon the temperature actually got up to 91F (about 34C) in Springfield! But as soon as the Sun went down, it cooled off quickly and became extremely pleasant. We couldn't have asked for better weather this year.
Current members of the Vanguard Council are (seated left to right in the accompanying photograph below) Tovarishch Sparg Otyebat, Signora Sintia Coconato, Senhor Robertino Solàrion and Señora Bombón Palmeiro.
Next year, non-Council members may have to pay in advance a "registration fee" because next year's activities may be held in the pool-deck suite of the Merigold Inn on Glenstone Avenue. Such minimal "registration fees" will be used to defray the cost of the suite and other expenses. The pool-deck suite is surrounded by outrageously fake palm trees and international flags, including the Ethiopian Marxist revolutionary flag. The Cuban flag flies out in front of the motel, amongst numerous others.
Additional information about next year's Planet X Convention will eventually be uploaded to this website. Details remain to be decided.
Thursday, October 16, was arrival day. We assembled for wine and snacks at the home of Signora Coconato. We had a delightful evening, getting acquainted in off-list real life, and listening to the music of Ethem Adnan Ergîl's Turkish Folk Guitar, Istanbul's Tarkan ("Turkish Ricky Martin"), The Gipsy Kings, Puerto Rican Carlos Ponce, as well as Mexicans Manny Manuel and Los Intocables. Sintia is a prolific and skilled chef who prepared many unusual vegetarian dishes for us. Wine flowed like Niagara Falls! Taxilan King Phraotes, erstwhile friend of Apollonius Tyanaeus, would have been proud of us!
I distributed some of the Mexican dream-herb "estafiate" to other Council members. SWEET DREAMS! Or should I say NIGHTMARES?!
The Merigold maid woke Sparg up too early, but I got up late on Friday, October 17, and we had lunch at Cartoon's Oyster Bar & Grill. I had them raw on the half-shell with horseradish red sauce, and he had Oysters Rockefeller. Both were excellent! It is a cozy and intimate place with mellow vibrations and an artistic décor. If I lived in Springfield, I'd be hanging out there quite a bit, I think. We highly recommend it if you are ever visiting Springfield, and it is within comfortable walking distance from the Merigold Inn. Then we toured the Japanese Stroll Garden, with its large rocks, ornamental goldfish, exotic ducks, nervous geese, lazy rooster and a few stray squirrels. We were the only ones there at the time. We had the whole, pleasantly quiet, 7-acre garden to ourselves. Springfield is the "sister city" of a city in Japan. Japanese "performance artists" regularly travel to Springfield. The photograph at the top of this page was taken in the Japanese Garden.
All of us are quite impressed with Springfield. This was the first time that I'd ever been there. It is a mid-sized American city of about 150,000 people. There are restaurants and motels galore, and block-long malls on just about every major thoroughfare, more such malls there than Sparg and I had ever seen in any other city. Springfield is a lily-white city, if I ever saw one. There were a couple of Mexican women working as maids at the motel, and I saw at least one business that was obviously Mexican-owned; but JR and Vince said that there are very few Mexican students in their school. As for African-Americans, I saw only 3 blacks the whole time: one was driving his car down the street, a second was walking down the sidewalk, and a third was coming out of Wal-Mart. I guess the "Redneck Dixieland" milieu of Springfield and Branson makes other racial groups want to live somewhere else. But it is indeed an odd sight for someone like I, who sees numerous Mexicans and blacks on a daily basis here in Texas.
My only objection to Springfield and this whole region in general regards the amount of vehicular traffic. Springfield's traffic is on a par with Dallas, if not Los Angeles! It is astonishing and maddening. That whole region's traffic (from Fayetteville, Arkansas, to Springfield, Missouri) is practically bumper to bumper. Going to Springfield, I got stopped by a horrendous four-car pile-up at the dangerous but important Gateway, Arkansas, intersection between Missouri and Eureka Springs. We sat in traffic and creeped along for an hour and a half, bumper to bumper for miles in all directions. It took me 90 minutes to go only 3 miles. This has been my last trip to Arkansas. I have seen it all anyway by now. But I'll tell you, that new mountain expressway from Alma to Rogers (I-540 to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville) is a magnificent sight to behold! It is a masterpiece of engineering. Now that I've finally seen it, I know why it took them so long to build it. My ears popped at high altitudes, and I actually felt dizzy a couple of times on some of the sloping bridgespans between the mountains. And, like the cherry on top of the ice-cream sundae, it even includes one artistically designed mountain tunnel. Those of you who don't live in these parts cannot possibly appreciate the regional traffic progress that has been achieved by this new expressway. It was President Bill Clinton's idea, I think, because he and Senator Hillary Clinton used to teach at the University of Arkansas back in the 1970s; and they, like I and everybody else, were well aware of the grueling, often congested car trip on that old, winding, two-lane mountain highway.
On Friday evening, Sintia once more prepared way too much food for us. We were well-fed that weekend, if nothing else. I laid out Gordon Michael Scallion's large "Future Map Of The World" on the living-room floor, and we discussed it. Then we sat around enjoying ourselves and listening to the background music of various international artists of the Twentieth Century: Paul Horn playing his flute inside the Great Pyramid of Egypt, the late-great-legendary songstress Oum Kalthoum ("the Ella Fitzgerald of Egypt"), Les Negresses Vertes (the Franco-Gitano "Green Nigger Girls"), some German and Spanish techno music, and Burt Lucarelli's "Sensual Oboe". And we nightcapped the evening with contemporary Vietnamese blues singers Elvis Phuong, Hoang Oanh and Kieu Nga.
We assembled again around mid-afternoon on Saturday, October 18. The word had spread that we were showing Robert Sepehr's Planet X Videos, and we had an unusually healthy turnout. I gave a lecture on Polar Axial Displacement, using my "Polar Globe" as a prop. Then the others watched Planet X Video #1 whilst I began preparing food. Following Video #1, we watched the first half of CALIGULA, the Penthouse Magazine Production by Bob Guccione and Franco Rossellini, starring Malcolm MacDowell (A CLOCKWORK ORANGE), as well as Academy Award winner Peter O'Toole (LAWRENCE OF ARABIA) and Sir John Gielgug, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. Malcolm MacDowell portrayed the most evil Caligula that I have ever seen on the scene. Fortunately, I have the completely uncensored Triple-X version, which I bought some years ago for $80. It is excellent! But it is certainly not for the children. It would frighten and confuse them terribly, especially such tragic scenes as the one around Lady Ennia's bathtub.
"Little Boots, do you prefer nymphs or satyrs?"
"Actually, I like both, grandfather."
"We need both."
Then we paused that video, so that some could watch the eclectic movie PI. Background music throughout the afternoon contained Pink Floyd and Dave Brubeck.
Dinner included, clockwise from the white bowl at the top of the table, Abyssinian Zighiny (chicken stew with boiled eggs), Mediterranean Olives, Syrian Hommous Tahini, dried red pepper flakes, Greek Pita Bread, Mexican Salsa and Tortilla Chips (not pictured), Chinese Lychees for dessert, variety Jalapeño peppers and Lebanese Tabouli Salad. Did you know that Chinese Lychees are used by Halloween haunted houses to simulate human eyeballs preserved in a bowl of formaldehyde? Wine, beer and coffee flowed freely, as well as a few more "exotic" substances. We took photographs. Then others arrived to join us. We resumed the movie CALIGULA. When it was over, and Caligula and Cesonia lay slaughtered in blood on the steps of the Capitoline, we watched Planet X Video #2, in which Robert Sepehr interviewed me. We finished the evening with Red Sea Massawino Jazz and other music, adjourning late at night.
Unforeseen circumstances forced us to cancel our Sunday trip to the Onyx Mountain Caverns and the Devil's Elbow. For me, ultimately, it was all for the best. I had a tiresome and long 14-hour drive back on Monday, October 20, and in retrospect would not like to have spent six hours driving on Sunday. We hung around at Sintia's till mid-afternoon, when Sparg bid us all "Dosvidanya" and left for Illinois. Bombón and I drove around Springfield for a couple of hours, looking at all the brilliantly colorful trees and old Mark-Twain era, Victorian-style mansions. We stopped at the International Wine Center and picked up some French Brie Cheese and Maille Dijon Mustard, amongst other things.
The wine clerk and I struck up a conversation as I was checking out. I told him that I was from Texarkana.
"Why are you here?" he asked.
"I'm attending a convention," I said.
"Oh? What sort of convention?"
"Ummm, an astronomy convention."
"So! We have some intellectuals in our midst!"
Personally, I tried to eat leftovers on Sunday, but Signora Coconato kept on cooking, and Bombón made some Spanish Gazpacho in Sintia's Cuisinart. It was delicious, but it resembled "salsa" more than "gazpacho". Bombón, Vince and I practically had to drag la signora out of the kitchen to watch the movie NIGHTFALL. I was stuffed, and earlier had had enough partying for one weekend and had sat quietly out on la signora's beautiful backyard deck (with no mosquitoes), burning one. Sunday's music included FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM by Revelations and THE SIRIUS EXPEDITIONS by Dogon. No, I am not making that up. Omeron recommended them. The lead singer of Revelations sounds a lot like Billy Idol, who is one of my favorite singers and performers. The back-up band also sounds like Billy Idol's band..
"Like nothing else exists. We are from a level above human. I get double vision. Think! What do you think? Think! Where do you think you're goin'?"
When the movie was over, everybody agreed that NIGHTFALL is excellent. Everyone of you should watch it. It was written as a short story by controversial sci-fi author Isaac Asimov, one of the arch-enemies of Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky, during the notorious "Velikovsky Affair" that also involved the late Dr. Carl Sagan of Cornell University. Velikovskian-Turncoat Professor C. Leroy Ellenberger and his minions were also discussed. Personally, I read Asimov's FOUNDATION series in Vietnam during the war, and I thought that they were totally boring "as a series", although parts of them were interesting. I first read the short story NIGHTFALL around that same time, too. Despite the fact that Asimov wrote it, it does contain vital parallels to our wait for the arrival of Planet X Nibiru, and I highly recommend it if you can find a copy at a video rental store near you. A lot of people fall asleep when watching it, and even Sintia dozed off for a couple of minutes (she was tired from cooking all day); but we all agreed that, from the standpoint of our coming "CROSSOVER", it has "lessons" to impart to all of us.
I said farewell to Sintia and Bombón at midnight.
Monday morning I got up early and drove down the freeway to Branson. Just as Florida is the "Redneck Riviera", so Branson is the Redneck Christian Las Vegas (without the gambling, of course). It is gaudy, tacky and even "creepy", as far as I am concerned.
Christian County Fore Praying!
Jim Bakker Live!
What a country! How do you say "funny" in Russian? Yakov!
Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede
Presleys' Country Jubilee Southern Gospel Music "Branson's Original Show On The Strip"
Gospel music in a nightclub?! Now I have truly heard it all!
Incredible Acrobats Of China! The New Shanghai Circus! The Impossible Performed Before Your Eyes!
The White House Theater - "It's always 'Showtime' at the White House!"
This nightclub is actually designed architecturally like the White House.
Celebration City : The Night Place For Families
Planet Branson Dining & Dancin', Tourist Information Center
Mickey Gilley Theater & Texas Cafe
Gilley's was the Houston ballroom featured in the movie URBAN COWBOY with John Travolta, who was great. That is my favorite John Travolta movie. Recently a new Gilley's opened up in Downtown Dallas. I plan to check it out.
Grand Country Hotel
The Shepherd Of The Hills Outdoor Theater & Inspiration Tower
There is a freeway called "Shepherd Of The Hills Expressway" that takes you to "Silver Dollar City". Polo's Mexican Restaurante was located just down the road from Silver Dollar City. Heavy traffic, even on a Monday morning. Those Christian Rednecks sure know how to party, don't they! There are churches and Christian youth centers all over the Ozarks. In old downtown Branson, you can board a train for a ride through the surrounding mountains. The scenery would be breathtaking; but there are so many tourists, retired elderly people and ordinary residents of the area, the road traffic is unbearable throughout the region. And I must add that the people of Missouri do not litter their highways nearly so badly as people do in Texas (especially), Arkansas and Oklahoma.
On the way up to Springfield, I stopped at the Heavener, Oklahoma, Runestone State Park. There are several places in North America where ancient Scandinavian "runes" (alphabetic letters) have been found carved onto large stones. These "runes" have been analyzed by modern linguists, and there is no doubt about their authenticity. The conclusion is forced that the ancient Vikings sailed across the North Atlantic Ocean, down the eastern coast of North America, circled around Florida and the Gulf Coast, and then entered the Mississippi River. Their boats were shallow and could navigate waters that were only a yard/meter deep. So they sailed up the Mississippi to the Arkansas River (which rivals the Mississippi in width) and ended up in northeastern Oklahoma, where they left their signature "runes" carved onto mountainside stones. This was centuries before Columbus "discovered" America.
Here are some excerpts from their park brochure:
"The most recent research of the runic inscription of the Heavener Runestone which stands in the State Park on Poteau Mountain near Heavener, Oklahoma, indicates that it may be four hundred years older than first thought. A former translation stated that it could be the date of November 11, 1012. It now appears that it is not a date, but is a boundary marker made as early as 600 AD and not later than 900 AD. It says GLOME VALLEY.
"The Heavener Runestone was first discovered, according to local oral history, by a Choctaw hunting party in the 1830s. Poteau Mountain, on which it is located, was named by French trappers. It was part of the Indian Territory ceded to the Choctaw Nation when they were removed from Mississippi to present Oklahoma. The Choctaws were probably astonished if they saw the eight mysterious symbols punched into the mossy face of the huge slab of stone which stood in a lovely ravine, protected by overhanging cliffs. Records tell us that there was no underbrush on the mountains then; a deer could be seen for a distance under the virgin timber.
"Scholars in America and abroad had been stumped because the runes seemed to be a mixture of two ancient runic alphabets: six from the oldest Germanic (Old Norse) Futhark which came into use about 300 AD, and the second and last runes from a later Scandinavian Futhork used about 800 AD. A runologist from Norway transliterated the letters as GNOMEDAL, and suggested it might be a modern name, G. Nomedal. But to do this, he had to consider that the second rune was unfinished. Two other runologists said it made no sense and had to be a modern fake. None of the three had seen the Heavener Runestone, so apparently they had not realized the labor required to carve the runes into the exceedingly hard stone, nor had they considered the weathering of the inscription in its protected location.
"With this understanding of the disputed runes, in 1986 Dr. Richard Nielsen, who obtained his doctorate at the University of Denmark, was able to offer translations for both the Heavener and Poteau Runestones. Both bear a version of the same name, one being a nickname of the others. The Heavener stone says GLOME DAL, which means 'Valley owned by GLOME', a boundary marker or land claim.
"The Poteau Runestone, which was part of a ledge and was broken off, says GLOI ALLW (Alu) 'Magic or Protection to Gloi'. This word for 'magic' was used in the language of about 600 AD. This is the key to the new dating.
"There was never a disagreement that the runes on the Shawnee Runestone, which spell the name of MEDOK, are all from the oldest Futhark. It was probably a gravestone, but the site was buldozed. There are rumors of still more runestones in the general area, although many were destroyed in the 1940s by treasure hunters.
"It appears that a Norseman named Glome, nicknamed Gloi, owned property on Poteau Mountain as early as 600 AD."
On the way back, after I left Branson, I toured the nearby Talking Rocks Cavern. This is a vertical cave that descends 100 feet (30 meters) into the Earth. It is an "active" cave, like so many of the other 7,000 caves in Missouri, which is known as "the cave state" as well as the "show me state". Our tour guide said that "millions" of years ago, there used to be an ocean covering southern Missouri and an "ice sheet" covering the northern part. When the ice melted, all that water flowed into underground caves, creating all the beautiful modern-day caverns. Yeah, right. Maybe there truly was an ocean covering Missouri at some point in the distant past, and perhaps the ocean water flooded these caverns; but Missouri, like "driftless" Wisconsin and Anchorage, Alaska, is located smack-dab on the Cairo-Oceania Polar Pivotal Equator, and it would NEVER experience any so-called "Ice Age".
"Your science is a fantasy," said The Serpent Princess in NIGHTFALL.
The cave's ad brochure states the following:
"Escape to an incredible cave you'll never forget. Let your family explore the awesome size and incredible beauty that waits in silence in this magical world. The power and artistry of nature can be overwhelming. Search for elusive cave-swelling salamanders that have never seen the light of the sun.
"Beneath the rolling hills of southwest Missouri lies a treasure in crystals and an adventure for your entire family. Located amid a 400-acre nature preserve, Talking Rocks Cavern and Natural Adventure Park is a treat for the senses for young and old alike. Guided 45-minute cave tours take you down and around on an 'up close and personal' tour of one of 'Missouri's Most Beautiful Caves'.
"From your first glimpse of the awe-inspiring 100-foot-tall Cathedral built by nature, to the massive crystal draperies that glow like warm honey as light peeks through, you will feel like you just stepped into a whole new world. The power and artistry of nature can be overwhelming as you explore this incredible cave. Tours are led by knowledgeable guides that really love sharing the cave and all its secrets with our guests.
"Bring your family, your camera, and your sense of adventure and let us supply the adventure. Above ground or below, the people are friendly, the view is gorgeous and the memories will last forever. Come spend a few hours of spend the whole day, and see for yourself!"
During the tour, our guide said something to this effect: "These beautiful cave formations are the result of the presence of carbonic acid in the water that seeps down upon them. And that's the same old carbonic acid that gives the fizz to our carbonated soft drinks, like Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola." Yeah, I was thinking, and I use Coca Cola to dissolve rust deposits on my automobile battery terminals. If carbonic acid can dissolve limestone rock and battery rust deposits, then one certainly should not be drinking carbonated soft drinks. Just think what ill effects this carbonic acid could have on a human digestive tract! I resisted the temptation to mention this to the tour group. Here are some photos from inside the cave.
Back at ground level, I bought some gems and other items. I am a sucker in a rock shop. I could easily have spent a thousand dollars in less than 15 minutes, if I could have afforded it. They had one large slab of quartz crystal priced at $500. It was definitely worth it. It seemed astonishing to me that such a large piece of crystal could have been removed from the clay/limestone rock without damaging the individual sections of crystals. But there are modern rock saws these days that can cut through bare, hard rock without damaging the crystals affixed to it. They were also selling pieces of amethyst.
"They say that if you own a piece of amethyst, you won't be abducted by aliens from Outer Space," I remarked to the tourguide.
"Say what?" she replied.
"Well, somebody told me that. If you quote me, say that this information is not necessarily 'accurate'," I said to the woman.
"Well, what I would like to know is WHO told this person about that!" she commented.
She didn't believe a word of it, and I'm not sure that I do either! HAHA!
Then I drove south to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Everyone with whom I've talked about Eureka Springs has lavishly praised its quaint, pastoral, mountain beauty; and it lived up to all my expectations. It is one of the world's "beauty spots" without a doubt. I had a long, leisurely lunch on the balcony-patio at Cafe Luigi: ravioli español for an appetizer followed by a baked filet of flounder stuffed with crab meat, and side dishes of spaghetti marinara, toasted garlic bread and a green salad with lots of cheese and hot red pepper flakes. The merlot house wine was first-rate.
After lunch I visited the Jerusalem Amphitheatre and Christ Of The Ozarks statue, which is an exact (to scale) replica of Christ The Redeemer atop Rio de Janeiro's Mount Corcovado. There is NO "Number 11 Scar" above the left eyebrow of either statue, although I really didn't expect to see one. In the accompanying photograph, the hedge in front of the statue is about a yard/meter in height. The Rio statue is about 70 feet (about 22 meters) tall and sits atop a pedestal which makes it look taller than the one in Eureka Springs. But I was most impressed by both the statue and the amphitheatre, I must say, although I don't particularly wish to see their famous "Passion Play". The "stage" of the amphitheatre is a real-size reconstruction of those parts of Jerusalem which are pertinent to the life and crucifixion of Christ The amphitheatre would probably seat 1,000 people. Some Christians actually break down in tears when watching this "Passion Play"! This complex also features a Bible Museum, which I didn't visit, as well as a section of the Berlin Wall, all of which are pictured below. Eureka Springs was crawling with tourists. It reminded me of Florida's Disney World. The architecture of Eureka Springs resembles New Orleans' "Vieux Carré", a sort of mountainside, miniature version of it. But I feel confident that the nightlife of Eureka Springs pales to the max in comparison with New Orleans.
From Eureka Springs, I drove south along the steep and dangerously curving Scenic Route 23 through the Ozark Mountains, taking some photographs, a few of which follow. Then I took the freeways to the Oklahoma Turnpike (toll road) and back to Texas. The Choctaw Indians have a huge gambling casino on US Highway 271 just south of Hugo, Oklahoma. It's about 70 miles (about 105 kilometers) north of Mount Misery, not too far from Paris and the Red River. Their parking lot was packed with the vehicles of drunken, greedy braves, squaws and assorted palefaces. Some general road views from southern Missouri and northern Arkansas follow.
