This is a clip from a trove of 8mm home movies I inherited from my parents. This one is from 1958 and features my twin brother and me, along with our sister, dancing to American Bandstand on the television.
Tom Fasano Articles.
Erich Von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods – a book that’s more like a spaced-out jam session than a scholarly thesis. Von Däniken’s riff? Cosmic journeymen moonlighting as ancient architects. He’s laying down tracks about spacemen sprucing up our planet with pyramid power and Easter Island headshots. But here’s the rub – Von Däniken’s solo is all over the fretboard, missing the chords of credibility and the rhythm of reason.
Dude’s got a knack for spinning a yarn that could hook the most skeptical of skeptics, I’ll give him that. He strings together ancient wonders like a conspiracy theorist’s dream playlist, but when you crank up the volume on his evidence, it’s just white noise and static. He’s like a DJ mixing myths with a backbeat of pseudo-science, hoping we’re too dazzled by the light show to notice the lack of substance.
His leaps in logic? Olympic gold-worthy. His connection of dots? More like throwing darts in the dark, hoping to hit a bullseye in the cosmic canvas. Erich Von Däniken has this way of bending unrelated facts into a space-time pretzel that’s more entertaining than enlightening. His narrative is a high-octane, no-brakes ride that’s a thrill for sure, but when you get off, you realize you’ve gone full circle and ended up just where you started – nowhere new.
“Chariots of the Gods” is a head trip, alright, but it’s not taking you on the journey to truth-town. For those digging a blend of ancient mystery and sci-fi spice, it’s a trip. But if you’re after the facts, you’ll find this rocket’s running on empty – a flashy launch with no landing.