I guess this is kismet.
—Author Erik Greene, commenting on the X-Spot series dedicated to his uncle, Sam Cooke.

Despite a haphazard presence on the Web, due to my move and personal matters, this has by far been the most active year for this site. But activity is one thing. What’s really striking about this year, at least to me, is the synchronicity of posts to real-world events. It’s almost as though kismet had destined me to concentrate on certain people and events at a specific time for maximum effect.

Take, for instance, the April Fools’ Day post where I jokingly referred to actor Charlton Heston as half-dead because of his senility. Had I known he would pass away before I could put up another post, I wouldn’t have mentioned him.

Unfortunately, this phenomenon seemed to continue throughout the year. In late April I began a series on the role a high-priced Washington call-girl ring led by a well-connected madam. Before the series could conclude, we would read about the death of another well-connected Washington madam named Deborah Palfrey. Worse yet, I casually mentioned George Carlin in a couple of posts in late-March, and he died three months later.

Of course, while writing the series on Manson, the health of Susan Atkins seems to have improved. She will now be attending a parole hearing later this year if she’s still around.

The moral of the previous paragraphs: don’t let me write about you unless you’re a convicted murderer at death’s door.

On the upside, this was a tremendous year for networking with others. I enjoyed the counsel and dialogue with a number of Lyndon LaRouche critics. I’ve enjoyed the same from Fromspahnranch, and others knowledgeable about the Tate-LaBianca killings. Of course, I tremendously appreciated the presence of Erik Greene during the Sam Cooke series (BTW, Erik, I owe you an e-mail soon). His book, Our Uncle Sam, gave me much to think about. And I have definitely given it a lot of thought since the series’ conclusion.

Although it appeared during Year Two of The X-Spot, the Paul-Is-Dead series sparked a buzz of new activity thanks to the gracious contribution of Letter B, who linked to the series from the Nothing Is Real (NIR) forum, of which he is a member. One of the respondents, going by the handle Apollo C. Vermouth, seemed to have inside information about the apparent use of two sound doubles (and one visual double) of Paul McCartney, and that the Beatles deliberately planted clues pointing to the duplicity over numerous posts:

The story line? In all truth, about 65% of what is written [regarding the Paul-Is-Dead rumor] is based on things that actually happened. The remainder, sheer fantasy. Now, to figure what is, and what isn't. It was agreed, BY ALL INVOLVED, that once the "story" is told, not to deviate from any previous statements. You know, and I know, that there ARE clues to be found on Pepper. Just what those "clues" allude to, has not yet been figured out. But, when asked of John, George, or Ringo, there was always the "total rubbish" response. That is the story line. Deny! I have been accused of "jerking you all off" with my cryptic responses. Truth is, you've been jerked off from day one! THAT was part of the "story line." A little mystery for you to figure out.

When things began to turn a bit "beyond the beyond", I tried to get the loonies back on the right path.

The theories of CIA, KKK, UFO's, Paul in space, Don Knotts....fucking hell!!! I'M JERKING YOU OFF????? Keep it simple, follow the clues, have a spot of fun, That is the "story line" NOW. There is a method to my madness.

Apollo

In late-March 2008, a site administrator revealed the identity of Apollo as that of former Apple CEO Neil Aspinall (Aspinall died from lung cancer on March 23 of last year). As a longtime associate of the band, not to mention a former Faul candidate himself, Aspinall knew more about the Beatles than anyone in the world, including the Beatles themselves. But other members of the NIR board had difficulty believing that Aspinall and Apollo were one and the same. I won’t rehash that whole argument, (you can get a decent summary of it here) but there are reasons to take the rumor seriously. If, by any chance, someone could verify Vermouth’s identity, then we could have daunting evidence that at least someone connected to Apple had interest in furthering the hoax, not because of any malicious reasons, but to have “a spot of fun.” If anything else breaks on this story, I’ll definitely give an update.

Of course, a good deal of energy this year has gone into producing The Golden Ganesh. As of now, I have found real actors to play the roles of Smythe, Col. Smith, Indra, and (drum roll, please) Dee. We’ll have to see when I get actual recordings before I say anything definite. Rest assured, however, that those of you who have already put in good work on the project will have your public hearing if I have to go to the open seas and abduct people. As it stands now, The Ganesh will give us something to talk about for Year 4.