Month: July 2023

Man Accused of Swindling Woman Out of Over $300,000 by Pretending to be God

Aside Markozen.com Bizarre

In a bizarre story out of Spain, a man is on trial for allegedly convincing an elderly woman to give him over $300,000 by pretending that he was God. The strange case reportedly began back in 2013 when the unnamed suspect called the victim, identified as Esperanza, and informed her that she was speaking to the Supreme Being. While most people would simply hang up the phone, the woman actually thought that it was God on the line as she had previously had a profound experience wherein she believes that she had been made a saint by the Virgin Mary. Esperanza’s tale was apparently so well-known in her community that it led to the call from the faux deity, who sought to take advantage of what Spanish media described as the woman’s “religious mystical delusions.”

Posing as God, the man told Esperanza that her money would be in safer hands if she gave it to him so that he could deposit it in a checking account at the ‘Bank of Heaven.’ By moving her funds into the divine institution, he claimed, she would have “more profitability” which would ultimately allow her to build a home in heaven when the time was right. Sadly, the dubious pitch worked to perfection and, over the next several years, Esperanza delivered envelopes of money to a store owned by the fraudster. In an effort to ensure that no one knew about the ongoing scam, the con artist even went so far as to warn the woman that ‘God’ would kill her children if she ever told them about their heavenly financial arrangement.

However, the sinister swindler’s house of cards came tumbling down when Esperanza ran out of money and began asking her family for loans, which led to them discovering the elaborate ruse that had befallen her. All told, it is believed that the unfortunate woman gave over $300,000 to the proverbial devil in disguise. Now on trial for the cruel scheme, the alleged swindler insists that he is innocent, however prosecutors say that part of the evidence that will be presented against him are recordings of phone calls wherein he posed as God to the unsuspecting Esperanza. If convicted, the man could face up to eight years in prison for the dastardly divine impersonation.

Vintage Cinema

Aside Markozen.com Movies

‘The Birds’ 1965

‘The Incredible Shrinking Man’ 1957

‘Lawrence of Arabia’ 1962

‘The Godfather’ 1972

‘Goodfellas’ 1990

‘Ed Wood’ 1995

‘Vertigo’ 1958

‘Psycho’ 1960

‘Key Largo’ Edward G. Robinson 1948

‘One Who Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest’ 1975

The Surreal Landscape of Deadvlei, Namibia

Markozen.com Offbeat

Markozen.com's avatarThe MarkoZen Blog

The picture below is not that of a painting. It was taken inside the Namib-Naukluft Park in Namibia, in a strange and alien landscape called Dead Vlei. Although sounds similar to “dead valley”, Dead Vlei is not an actually valley. The term means “dead marsh” (from English dead, and Afrikaans vlei, a lake or marsh in a valley between the dunes).

Deadvlei is a white clay pan located near the more famous salt pan of Sossusvlei, scattered with hundreds of dead Acacia trees that once thrived when water from the Tsauchab River soaked this piece of land. Some 900 years ago the river diverted its course, leaving Dead Vlei literally high and dry. Dead Vlei has been claimed to be surrounded by the highest sand dunes in the world, the highest reaching 300-400 meters which rest on a sandstone terrace.

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Abgestorbene Akazien im Dead vlei, Namibia

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 Strange Set of Floating Lights Filmed by Trail Cam in Canada

Aside Markozen.com UFOs

A curious piece of trail camera footage from Canada shows a mysterious set of lights that rise up from the ground and then float across the sky. The peculiar scene was reportedly captured on June 21st on the property of Anne Vickers in the community of Caledon, Ontario. Sharing the footage with MUFON, she indicated that the trail camera was seemingly activated by a raccoon that was roaming around in her yard. In the video, shortly after the creature caused the motion-activated device to start filming, what appears to be an object sporting nine lights in a straight line emerges from the tall grass next to the animal, which has no reaction to the eerie aerial interloper. The peculiar UFO then flies overhead and vanishes from view.

According to Vickers’ MUFON report, “this property has no houses nearby, or any roads, and it’s not a flight path for airplanes.” She goes on to note that “there were 50-foot trees behind the lights” and, as such, argues that “there is no way it could have flown through them.” As for what the object might have been, setting aside the extraterrestrial hypothesis, some observers have suggested that it could have been some kind of drone, though why it would be lurking on Vickers’ property is another mystery altogether. More skeptical observers have also posited that the footage may be a digital creation, which sadly cannot be discounted in this day and age.

Black Rock!

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Death was a garage rock and protopunk demo band formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1971 by the brothers Bobby (bass, vocals), David (guitar), and Dannis (drums) Hackney. The African American trio started out as an R&B band but switched to rock after seeing an Alice Cooper show. Music critic Peter Margasak (incorrectly denoting the youngest brother) retrospectively wrote of their musical direction: “The youngest of the brothers, guitarist David, pushed the group in a hard-rock direction that presaged punk, and while this certainly didn’t help them find a following in the mid-70s, today it makes them look like visionaries.” The band broke up by 1977 but reformed in 2009 when the Drag City label released their 70s demos for the first time.

Another Black band that could do searing Rock:

Diana Ross – Ain’t No Mountain High Enough

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If you need me, call me. No matter where
You are, no matter how far. Just call my
Name. I’ll be there in a hurry. On that
You can depend and never worry.
(You see, my love is alive It’s like a
Seed that only needs the thought of you to
Grow. So if you feel the need for company,
Please, my darling, let it be me. I may not
Be able to express the depth of the love
I feel for you, but a writer put it very nicely
When he was away from the one he loved.
He said down and wrote these words:)

No wind, (No wind) no rain, (no rain)
Nor winter’s cold
Can stop me, babe (oh, babe) baby (baby)
If you’re my goal

No wind, no rain,
Can stop me, babe
If you wanna go

I know, I know you must follow the sun
Wherever it leads
But remember
If you should fall short of your desires
Remember life holds for you one guarantee
You’ll always have me

And if you should miss my love
One of these old days
If you should ever miss the arms
That used to hold you so close, or the lips
That used to touch you so tenderly
Just remember what I told you
The day I set you free

Ain’t no mountain high enough
Ain’t no valley low enough (Say it again)
Ain’t no river wild enough
To keep me from you

Ain’t no mountain high enough
Ain’t no valley low enough (Say it again)
Ain’t no river wild enough
To keep me from you

Ain’t no mountain high enough
Nothing can keep me
To keep me from you

Ain’t no mountain high enough
Ain’t no valley low enough (One more time)
Ain’t no river wild enough (Say it again)
To keep me from you

Ain’t no mountain high enough
Nothing can keep me
To keep me from you

The early years: