January 22, 2013
I wrote the following posting on April 12, 2012. None, absolutely none of my criticisms in this posting have changed a thing at Cryptomundo. I am uncomfortable with the evolution of my presence here, and if I don’t change some things, I will begin to de-evolve.
The time is near for me to engage in metamorphosis, on my own, or die.
Stay tuned.
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Loren Coleman, in his younger, pre-Cryptomundo days. The dazed look, no doubt, was caused by a producer asking the oft-heard but disliked question, “Do you really believe in the Abominable Snowmen?”” Screen capture of a “In Search Of” appearance, 1991.
Loren Coleman, after the aging processes caused by blogging daily and museum building set in. Image by photojournalist Greta Rybus, 2012.
It continues to get crowded at Cryptomundo. Have you noticed? Mostly a couple guys named Loren and Craig, along with infrequent pieces by Rick Noll and John Kirk, started this journey here in, what, 2005.
I wonder if I should leave? What do you think?
What is really getting to me is this continued confusion that ever freaking word that appears at Cryptomundo is mine. Not true, of course. As you have seen with the recent addition of various other bloggers who are using CM as a signpost to drive CM readers from here to their own blogs, this is much different that my blogging on Cryptomundo. What has traditionally happened is that I have written original material for CM first, and then alerted folks on Facebook, Twitter, yahoolists, and via emails back to my piece here.
Additionally, mistakes by critics are still being made that Cryptomundo is “me” and that I own or control it. Do you know how tiresome that is?
Let’s look at this most recent example:
Recently, just a few days ago, one of the people directly involved with the Flipper Picture visited the International Cryptozoology Museum.
The museum is operated by Loren Coleman, who has a blog about cryptozoology matters. Now the blog itself—in my opinion—is dubious. It spends a lot of time huckstering bad, really bad, TV shows. But I’ve never seen anything there that casts doubt on the character of Loren Coleman himself.
Anyway, so Martin Klein visited the museum. Martin Klein in an MIT-trained engineer who developed a great deal of the modern technology now called “side-scan sonar.” Klein designed a lot of the hardware that was used to capture the Flipper Picture.
Loren Coleman has a long blog post about Klein and his visit to the cryptozoology museum: Loch Ness Expedition Member Marty Klein Visits Museum
While I appreciate this writer seeing that my character is intact, why am I constantly blamed for things I don’t do that are written at Cryptomundo? Okay, I get it. It is due to the same reason, I suppose, that someone can tell you they hate such and such a book, and frequently then cannot tell you who the author of the book is.
I toil at producing some in-depth thoughtful essays (see all the early 2012 ones on Yetis, for example) at Cryptomundo, have fun now and then, celebrate the lives of cryptozoologists and other associated with the field, as well as dealing with the popular cultural impacts of cryptids in the media and movies.
I can be accused of many things, but “shilling for” or “huckstering” bad television shows is really not one of them. Read the name of the authors, folks, please. Criticisms are taken well by me, if the critique is pointed in the proper direction.
I should hang in a bit more. That is, as long as these people begin to learn that Cryptomundo is a tent. While I happily acknowledge that with all my postings six years ago, Cryptomundo reflected a lot of me and became established. But sites change and this place is not just “me,” any longer. Cryptomundo, in general, today, houses many points of view.
Thanks to all my fans.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
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