Meet The Team, 9: Greg Bishop, California

It's time to introduce you to another of the CFZ's regional reps: my good friend Greg Bishop, who is coordinating the California office (and who can be seen with me in this photo taken in 2008 at the grave of Johnny Ramone). As well as being a genuinely good guy, Greg is responsible for some of the most thought-provoking Fortean material it will ever be your good fortune to read.

And, to give you more information on Greg, here's his bio:

Greg Bishop became interested in UFOs at a very early age. He has no idea why. In 1991, he co founded a magazine entitled The Excluded Middle, for the purpose of educating himself first, and secondly, passing on the info to interested readers. How selfish.

TEM was a journal of UFOs, conspiracy research, psychedelia and new science (now online at www.excludedmiddle.com ). "Wake Up Down There!" a collection of articles from the magazine, was published in 2000.

Greg’s writing has appeared the L.A. Weekly, Fortean Times, UFO Magazine and Magical Blend, among others, and in the book-length anthologies "Conspiracy And Cyberculture," "Zen And The Art of Close Encounters," "Kooks," and "You Are Being Lied To."

In 2005, his book "Project Beta" was an attempt to set the record straight on the Paul Bennewitz disinfo saga.

His third and newest title, "Weird California," was published in March of 2006. His Internet show, "Radio Misterioso," can be heard on Sundays from 8-10 PM PST at http://www.killradio.org/.

Interviews with fringe-topic researchers and weird music are the usual fare. In 1989 he found out that life does not in fact, suck, and set out to prove it to himself.

He has interviewed Larry King about his saucer sighting, hoaxed a UFO on a camping trip, broken into abandoned mental hospitals, searched for entrances to underground civilizations, wandered through graveyards in the dead of night, spoken to an audience of 800 in New York, installed a pirate FM transmitter on his roof, got Genesis P. (Psychic TV) Orridge to sign a baseball, hiked in 200 foot canyons so narrow he had to walk sideways, seen naked couples writhe in mud after a desert thunderstorm, destroyed a Rush Limbaugh book with a 9mm pistol, flown airplanes and sailplanes and insulted UFO researchers without even trying.

His influences include Robert Anton Wilson, Edward Abbey, Martin Kottmeyer, Nick Redfern, Jim Brandon, Bill Hicks, Jacques Vallee, William S. Burroughs, Alva John Keeler, Jim Martin, Bill Moore, John Fante, Dean Radin, Lenny Bruce, Kenn Thomas, Whitley Strieber and every UFO contactee that has ever lived.

When not writing, he can be found in the southwestern deserts of the US or flying his para-glider above vertiginous cliffs and mountains, sometimes with a propeller strapped to his back. Successful bribes include New Mexican cuisine, recordings of “outsider” music, rare contactee books, tickets to baseball games and selected original artwork.