Roswell, New Mexico. I’ve never been here before. It seems I’ve been just about everywhere else in New Mexico, but I kept missing Roswell. No concerted effort on my part, just it wasn’t on the way anywhere during my previous explorations in this great state.
It seems the UFO crash here in 1947 is the focal point for the identity of this town. Whatever this place might have been has been eaten up by Americas fascination with watching the skies. Main Street here is a breeding ground for Alien Cult heaven.
Driving through New Mexico the past day or so, I’ve noticed it is filled with small towns just like in Texas. They’ve got the central courthouse, the main square small town businesses. Usually an Abstract Company, the bank, a bail bonds place, antique stores and home made goods. Here, well the street lamps have been converted to alien heads, the coke machines have been assimilated, those home businesses? Their awnings read “ALIEN SHIP” “ROSWELL LANDING” “ALIEN ZONE” – Hell, my Best Western Motel’s in-room menu has an ALIEN STUFFED BURRITO – apparently alien may taste like chicken and green chilies, but that’s cuz everything in New Mexico tastes a bit like chicken and green chilies.
The knick-knack shops have become bizarre autopsy dioramas… some with man on the table, some with alien on the table. The restaurant advertised on billboards on the way to town, FARLEY’S has a menu illustrated by Larry Welz of underground comic fame, has alien polished steel spaceships hanging from the ceiling – and the back wall and pool hall… well, it’d make Hugo Gernsback proud… it’s the old Buck Rogers rocket pack cover of AMAZING STORIES adapted to read AMAZING FOOD.
What I like about this place is… it hasn’t seemingly been perverted by corporate bloodsuckers. A major theme park isn’t here. All the attractions are low-budget home spun craziness. New Mexico has always had a great indie arts community and here in Roswell, they’ve taken the theme of Aliens and run with it.
But to me, it always comes back to what the fuck happened here in 1947. Sure, we know the story of the two military men that left the military to “tell all” – The farmer/rancher that allegedly has a piece of some metal that can not be melted or scratched. We all know that the legacy of this town allegedly resides somewhere in Nevada at a place called Area 51 – Right?
X-Files craziness? Well, Chris Carter understood that the mythology of what happened here in 1947 was so pervasive that you could launch a major multi-season show with just the questions that started here and spread across the country.
How serious do I take the 1947 story? I don’t know. I love playing with the “what ifs” – but until about 2 years ago I didn’t take any of it as being very serious. But then I learned something about my Grandfather on my father’s side that kind of made me reconsider things.
You see – When my Grandfather was a kid, he loved stuff like Burroughs’ John Carter series, Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. We know this because my father found all his books as a kid, but basically my entire father’s life – Gramps (my name for him) was completely dismissive of Science Fiction and the fandom about it. He never saw STAR WARS or CLOSE ENCOUNTERS. Had no interest in 2001 or apparently the moon landing. What happened? That wasn’t a major question to me. Just a curiosity.
Fact is, people’s tastes change. I know that, you know that.
A week or two after his funeral I was going through his things and found some of his mementos from his time where he served as the cryptographer at the Roswell Air Force Base in 1947. No, I didn’t find papers that he coded and then sent to other military officials, but… My Grandfather, the one that suddenly and inexplicably decided science fiction was stupid, he would have been the guy at the air base that read the reports. Gramps knew, and I never knew to ask him. ARGH!!!!!!
Did he know science fiction was the joke that covered the terrible dirty secret of it all? What did he know about Roswell 1947? I gotta know, but never will.
Now I respect my Grandfather too much to create stories that he “told” me, or exaggerate what it was he did, but… the not knowing is delicious. The great mystery of it all.
That crash, explosion, experimental spy plane crash or whatever happened in the Roswell area. It’s the stuff of legend, and I like to think that he was on duty on those days… feverishly coding and decoding the truth that drove his passion for far away worlds and futuristic do-dads away to some dark corner of brain that he never really let go with again. Or maybe he just decided that that goofy science fiction stuff was stupid and he wanted real world tough guy films like John Wayne, Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood.
Or maybe what he saw turned his blood cold – and revealed a sinister take over plan that would doom all mankind one day!
No matter, I’m here now to see IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE in 3D. Time to head to the UFO RESEARCH LIBRARY AND MUSEUM thing!
Ok – I’m inside this bastion of… “the truth” The silver haired lady with antennae behind the counter to collect our “donation” cracks me up. My nephew is cheerfully pointing out every “Alien” around. We stab a red thumbtack into Austin on the map of – “where folks visiting are from.”
One’s immediate impression of this “museum” is that it isn't so much as a museum as an "amuseum" and that at any point you expect to see the “Man Eating Chicken” exhibit for an extra $5. But you don’t. Most of what is on display here is timelines, official documents, old Roswell Airforce Base materials. The Col. in charge of the Roswell ‘clean up’ dying description of the beings in the crash as “CREATURES” – base photographs – including shots of my grandfather!!! I spotted 2 photographs of him here! HOW FUCKING COOL! My Gramps is in the UFO MUSEUM!!!
They have this huge reproduction of the sarcophagus lid from Palenque in the Yucatan… I’ve seen it for real when I was my nephew’s age. And there is no mistaking the fact that whatever they were carving in that stone was an astronaut at controls. It is very cool to see it reproduce at double scale. My nephew demands Alien Coke, I mumble something about Space Coke and Tommy Chong and breaking the Museum’s roof… but the kid is wise to me and corners me.
I get him back a little later – when I have him pose in front of the Alien Autopsy set from ROSWELL, the Showtime film. I end up buying Alien Mardi Gras beads, Alien Glow stick, baseball cap, rubber Aliens for the nephew to tear to pieces, this really trippy alien in a space egg thing he wanted and this cool Roswell crash site deal.
I wanted to hit a few more Alien Stores – but apparently nearly this entire town closes on Sunday very early, and word has it Monday too – so if you’re coming to Roswell, hit it on a Friday or Saturday for the best chance at stuff being open.
We come out and go into the parking lot where we find out that the screening will be moved from the Cielio Grande Recreational Center to the Parking lot of the UFO museum… I couldn’t be more pleased.
Oh No! Turns out the hack dumbshit that was supposed to handle the local publicity for this event was one of those lazy no count loser types – so Tim and the Drafthouse crew have been running around handing out flyers in a last ditch chance to scare up a modicum of business for tonight’s screening.
When Father Geek, Kubla Khan and I settle into the parking lot – there’s only about 5 non Drafthouse attendees. Storm clouds are rolling in, the event is loose as hell. With the 80% chance of rain, they can’t risk the equipment being fucked – so Tim decides to turn this screening into a DRIVE-IN affair! COOOL!!!!
I have a brief conversation with God, and we reach the understanding that he won’t rain on our event, so I get out of the car, set up the laptop in the parking lot on an old tin litho 50’s space dinner tray/table. I notice a beautiful Maxfield Parrish sky behind this cool antennae.
More folks are rolling in, looks like it’ll be a light crowd in Roswell, but then – this is the least culty / well-known film of the whole affair. Plus without local attendance, this doesn’t fill up. But the folks that did turn out. Awesome. John Pierson, of REEL PARADISE & SPIKE,MIKE,SLACKERS & DYKES fame, has joined the circuit.
We talk about bringing cool films to Fiji, I bring up my “uncle” Bob Magnusson, who took about 200 films with him to a strange mysterious Pacific island back in the 70s. Most of the crowd shares my faith and breaks out their lawn chairs in front of their cars. Everyone seems to be wearing some sort of Alien wear. I’m wearing one of my Bowling shirts with a rocket lifting off the left side of my chest and atomic symbol patches on the color… and I’m wearing my Alien Mardi Gras beads. Father Geek is wearing his Barbarella Hawaiian style shirt. My nephew is wearing his Plan 9 From Outer Space shirt of Vampira and has a green Alien bottle around his neck, from which he can blow bubbles. He wins.
Having figured out my digital camera a bit better, I figured out that I could take pictures of the screen… but only of fairly static images that didn’t move… THE CAT FROM OUTER SPACE trailer got good laughs. The trailer for GREEN SLIME fucking rocks as always. Man, gotta love that Fukusaku is represented. Then there’s MESSAGE FROM SPACE – one of the great cool Vic Morrow films. Lastly there’s DR WHO AND THE DALEKS. Can there really be a greater joy than watching Daleks spitting out fog – and having an announcer tell us it is fire spitting from these metal men? I don’t think so either. Then it was time for IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE!!! The following was the title images of the trailers and the film. Extra treat for you 3D lovers out there. Break out your glasses and the middle of this image turns to 3D!!!
