I never thought I would do a post mostly concerning the character of the Joker, mostly because the character has been explored backwards and forwards by bloggers of much greater talent then myself, and I didn't think I could add any new insight on the character. However, I was web surfing today and I found something really bizzare that I can't explain.
I was reading this excellent post from Dial B for Blog about the creation for the Batman, and at the end of the post I read that the inspiration for the Joker came from a 1928 silent film called "The Man Who Laughs." You can watch the film in it's entirety on YouTube. The plot of the story is King James takes revenge on a lord who offended him by having his son's face surgically altered so he would always appear smiling. I found the film to be quite disturbing and I couldn't watch the whole thing. I don't reccomend watching it if you are prone to nightmares.
I don't like it when comic book characters have their origins changed when they are transferred to film. Comic Book Joker got his smile because of falling into a vat of acid. The Joker from the Dark Knight had his face mutilated, just like the character from "the Man Who Smiles." (Which first appeared as a book published in 1869.) So, who played the title character Gwynplaine in "the Man Who Laughs?"
His name was Conrad Veidt. He died relatively young at the age of 50, and like Heath Ledger he caused a stir early in his career by playing a gay man in a film. (probably the first portrayal ever)
Veidt also appeared in Magnus Hirschfeld's pioneering gay rights film Anders als die Andern ("Different from the Others", 1919), in which he played what is likely the first gay character written for the cinema, and in Das Land ohne Frauen (1929), Germany's first talking picture
What really grabbed me was his date of birth and death. He was Born on Jan 22 1893, and he died on Apr 3 1943. Heath Ledger was born on April 4 1979, and died on Jan 22 2008.
"For a long time now there has been too much secrecy in this city," Obama said. "The old rules said that if there was a defensible argument for not disclosing something to the American people, then it should not be disclosed. That era is now over. Starting today, every agency and department should know that this administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information, but those who seek to make it known."
I applaud this move, it goes a long way to ease the skepticism and cynical ism that has been a large part of my life over the last five years. However, actions speak louder than words, so here are the top nine secrets that the government should come clean on. If just half the list of things I want to know, some of which may sound ridiculous, but hey, it's my list.
There has been speculation that it was about everything from the collapse of the economy to the arrival of Planet X. Governments shouldn't hide their business from the people, we have a right to know what they talked about.
9. What happened at Montauk?
There have been many rumours concerning the island of Montauk involving alternate realities and time travel. I have always found it fascinating reading, but I pretty much thought it was crap until manbearpig washed up on a nearby shore. So, are we currently conducting time travel/ alternate reality experiments?
8. Just how many people did the government spy on anyway? On Countdown with Keith Olberman last night, a whistle blower admitted the NSA kept files on journalist's phone calls and e-mails. How many other groups were targeted? Yes, I'm wondering about synchromystic bloggers and 911 truth.
(Note, I've actually seen the installation in the photo. It's at an army camp where military police train.)
BERKELEY, Calif.--A Halliburton subsidiary has just received a $385 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security to provide "temporary detention and processing capabilities."
The contract -- announced Jan. 24 by the engineering and construction firm KBR -- calls for preparing for "an emergency influx of immigrants, or to support the rapid development of new programs" in the event of other emergencies, such as "a natural disaster." The release offered no details about where Halliburton was to build these facilities, or when.
During the democratic primary it looked like Hillary was going to stay in the race until the bitter end. The meeting with Obama came at a time when the uber secret Bilderburg group was meeting, but the place of the Obama/Hillary meeting is still secret. I want to know how much influence secret societies have had on our politics.
Did we recover an alien spaceship? If we did, what technology have we learned from it? Who all knew about it, and why was it kept secret?
2. Are there pyramids on Mars?
A big stone face sitting between a bunch of pyramids looks kind of fishy to me. What do we know about possible past life on Mars?
1. What really happened on 9-11?
Why is there no footage of a plane hitting the Pentagon? Why did the buildings fall at near free fall speed? Why did Bush say he saw the first plane hit on television on 9-11 when the footage wasn't released until the next day? We need all documents on this released, and we need a new investigation.
There is some other stuff I am working on, but I wanted to get this info out asap. Earlier today when I tried to log into the Prison Planet Forum, I received a message that I was banned. I was a little shocked but I came to find out the site was hacked. It's actually a devilishly ingenious plan. Isolate each member and make them think they are banned for some trivial offense. A false flag operation in a smaller sense.
So, if you are a Prison Planet Forum member, and you are a reader of this blog, don't worry, you weren't' banned.
I haven’t blogged about it here, but I am a big football fan. My team, the Cincinnati Bengals didn’t make the playoffs this year, but I found the playoffs overall to be very entertaining.
In the AFC Championship last night, Willis Mcgahee collided with Steeler’s safety Ryan Clark and lay motionless on the field for several minutes. It turns out it was a concussion and he’s going to be fine.
In the NFC Championship game, the Arizona Cardinals withstood a furious Philadelphia Eagles comeback to earn their right to go to their first Super Bowl.
Comcast.net has both these stories from over the weekend and more, including the Anton Bouldwin blow up as well as various experts football picks for the big game.
The don’t have just print stories, they have video as well.
After the Super Bowl, March Madness is just around the corner. Comcast.net is a great place to get information on which Cinderella teams may go far in the tournament. It seems every year there is a college I never heard of getting into the sweet sixteen.
Of course after March Madness is baseball season. So many players jump from team to team, that I am going to need Comcast.net to help me keep up with who is playing where. Maybe this will be the year the Cincinnati Reds make the postseason. (Hey, I can hope can’t I?)
I'm sure most of you remember a few years back when Danish newspapers published a cartoon image of the prophet Muhammad, which caused an uproar in the Muslim world. In Islam, it is forbidden to display an image of Muhammad in any way. This way of thinking was a bit hard to understand for the Christians of the western world. Images of Jesus has appeared in various films and paintings, Some of the latter going back 1500 years. Jesus has appeared in some comic books, all of them Christian comics that retold his life and works.
Satan of course, has appeared in superhero comics since at least the 1950s. So if Satan has appeared in various superhero comics, how many has Jesus appeared in? There is only one that I know of, and it's seems to be an unlikely hero he was teamed up with.
The date for the above comic is Dec 1974. You can see Satan is trying to claim the soul of Johnny Blaze, the Ghost Rider. The Comic starts off with Ghost Rider fighting a one eyed demon named Inferno, who has hypnotized a crowd and is using them against the Ghost Rider. Towards the end of the comic, the Ghost Rider is defeated, and Satan shows up to claim his soul. Except there is one person in the crowd who steps in on Johnny's behalf.
I thought for a long time about whether to post this or not, but upon review, it's not offensive, and it's an interesting bit of comic book history. If anyone thinks I'm wrong, let me know.
Sleep Apnea I’d like to take a moment to talk about a serious medical condition that affects millions of people every night. Sleep Apnea is a sleep disorder where the sufferer stops breathing during sleep, and awakens. It is a disorder that gets worse as a person ages.
People who suffer from Sleep Apnea will stop breathing for about ten seconds, awaken, then go back to sleep. This usually happens about five times a night, and the person who suffers from sleep apnea usually doesn’t even know that they have stopped breathing. They often suffer from sleepiness and fatigue during the day.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea is common among people who are overweight and have high blood pressure. A symptom of sleep apnea is loud snoring, although not all people who snore have sleep apnea. Obstructive Sleep apnea is when the soft palate muscles around the base of the tongue relax and obstruct the airway.
Central Sleep Apnea is a bit less common. It occurs because the central nervous system is not telling the muscles to breath. It can occur in people who have recently suffered a stroke, or heart failure.
Both forms of Sleep Apnea can be treated. Visit sleep apnea for a list of medical centers and doctors that treat sleep apnea.
(Disclosure: This has been a paid post for which I will be compensated)
In the first three minutes of this clip, we see a fight to the death between two men portrayed by actors who would later become governors.
Jesse Ventura was governor of Minnesota, and Arnold Shwarzenegger is the current governor of California. The fight takes place in the film "the Running Man", which was released in 1987 and based on a novel by Stephen King, writing as Richard Bachman, which had a very different ending.
Richards overpowers the flight crew but is shot, suffering a mortal wound. With his last strength, he overrides the plane's autopilot and sets the plane to fly right into the Games Building, home of the Network and "The Running Man". The last thing Killian sees is Richards in the cockpit giving him the finger as the plane slams into the building.
King wrote this as Bachman, and Bachman is not real. The fight scene in the film is a fiction within a fiction, computer generated images intended to trick the audience into thinking Richards (Schwarzenegger) is dead.
This is the cover of the novel, which reads....
Welcome to America in 2025, where the best men don't run for president, they run for their lives.
Schwarzenegger and Ventura were both "running men", in the film and in politics. There has been speculation that both men may someday run for president. If that happens, I'm voting for Jesse.
In the course of a persons life, there are certain household items that are used everyday, but they are taken for granted. Cutlery is one of those things.
When evaluating an item, there are only two things to consider, form and function. If your cutlery performs the proper function, chances are you don’t think about it too much. If the spoon carries the soup to your mouth, what does it matter?
I’ll tell you why it matters. Because it’s the little things in life that go unnoticed, things like cutlery and silverware, that make life just a little bit more enjoyable. Has your cutlery lost it’s shine? Do you have pieces of the set missing? Do you remember how your cutlery looked when it was new, and you took it out of the box and used it for the first time?
Shine new cutlery gives one a feeling of satisfaction and order that extends from the dinner table to other aspects of life. Consider this, when you go to a restaurant, a waiter or waitress will come over to your table and asks “May I take your order?”
(Disclosure: This has been a paid post for which I will be compensated.)
I don't trust politicians, but I do like political theater. I just remind myself after I watch it that it's not real, it's just a movie.
Eight days ago, I made this post about the Dark Tower poem by Robert Browning, novels by Stephen King. It's the story of a knight on a quest to find and enter the Dark Tower.
Today, the senate refused to seat Roland Burris because he was appointed by a Governor who is under investigation.
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is accused of trying to sell the senate seat, and the accusation came before the appointment of Burris.
Blagojevich has been tried in the media, and I must confess that my first thought was that "he lied in every word." This is the first line in the Browning poem. But is he guilty? The only thing I know for sure, he is guilty of is having unnatural looking hair.
On December 8, 2008, he called on state agencies to stop doing business with Bank of America in order to pressure them to make the loan needed to pay severance pay to factory workers whose job had just been lost.
Blagojevich threatened to halt the state’s dealings with Bank of America Corp. over a shut-down factory in Chicago. On December 8, 2008, all state agencies were ordered to stop doing business with Bank of America to pressure the company to make the loans. Blagojevich said the biggest U.S. retail bank won’t get any more state business unless it restores credit to Republic Windows and Doors, whose workers were staging a sit-in. Critics called Blagojevich's threat dangerous.
The very next day, he was arrested. And now his appointee Roland Burris is trying to find a way into the senate, just as Roland Deschain is trying to find a path to the tower.
Our bed is getting pretty old, it squeaks, it’s uncomfortable, and it doesn’t match the rest of the bedroom decor. Having a bed that doesn’t match the rest of the bedroom is discouraging.
For most of us, a third of our lives is going to be spent in bed. I spend about 8 hours of a 24 hour day in bed.
Time 4 Sleep has hundreds of beds for you to choose from, including but not limited to metal beds, wooden beds, and leather beds. It’s an amazing site. If you are interested in purchasing a bed, you could spend hours browsing through the different styles of beds, and not look at the same bed twice. Here are a few of my favourite selections.
The Tuscany Black is a sleek, beautiful, luxurious bed. Looking at the picture they provide, I can imagine smelling the fine aroma of leather, laying in it and drifting off to the land of Nod. It comes in double frame, king sized frame, and super king sized frame.
Rhea is a bed that sits up a bit higher than other beds, and I like that because it’s easier to get into. The Rhea also has storage drawers underneath it, which would make it easier for me to find my pajamas.
With a scroll headboard and footboard, the Verona reminds me of a royal horse drawn chariot. If you journey to the land of the sandman in this bed, he will be sure to notice you and give you pleasant dreams.
Choose one of these, or one of the hundreds showcased on their site, and you will be well satisfied.
The above cover is the Adventures of Superman #596, published on September 12, 2001. One of the first things I noticed about the cover was that Superman's emblem had a black background, not the traditional yellow. In the sub-title "This is not a job for Superman", we notice the O in not is a miniature sun. Above the sun is the word "Isis". The logo itself is an upside down pyramid.
On the first panel of page two, we get this shot.
Lexcorp's twin towers are partially destroyed, with helicopters swirling about. Anyone who knows about comics knows that they are written and drawn months before the publish date, and this one went on sale a day after 911. The plot of the story is that there has been an alien invasion which has left much of the Earth damaged, and Superman hasn't lifted a finger to help with the rebuilding.
Of course J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter is going to make an appearance. It seems that every time the disaster was foreseen in D.C. Comics, he was there. In this panel he wants to know why Supes isn't helping, and in the background you can see the twin towers. Only in this shot, they are much less damaged. On another monitor to the right you can see the Great Pyramid of Cheops.
Uh-oh! There is a crisis in Antarctica. It seems the ice is melting for no good reason. To the Left of J'onn you can see the towers now appearing undamaged. And of course we must have a shot of the pyramids in this panel as well.
The Weather Wizard is melting the ice in Antarctica, and is putting it on Youtube! While most people would be shocked that a man in bright spandex is standing in the middle of the South Pole, I am more curious as to why a polar bear is 12000 miles away from his home. Everyone knows that polar bears are native to the Arctic, not the Antartic. Everyone except the editors at D.C. Comics it would seem.
Theres not much to tell for the rest of the issue. Superman easily dispatches the weather Wizard, and then saves a construction worker from falling. The construction worker then tells off president Luthor.
So in this comic book that was released on September 12, 2001, we have an alien invasion, 911, global warming, Isis, the pyramids, and weather control. Not to mention my favorite martian. Of course no comic book review would be complete without posting the back cover, as they usually synch well with the rest of the story. I wonder what it will be this time. They could have a bunch of college cheerleaders cheering on bradly tanks and it wouldn't surprise me.
Okay, I lied, It does surprise me. The game is called "Advance Wars". Go beavers! Build that dam!
This past fall, a freak windstorm knocked out the power to my town. The wind hit speeds in excess of 60 mph, and it didn’t let up all day. We were without electricity for 24 hours, but some folks were out for over a week. We have had some freaky weather here lately, and I believe the pattern is going to continue.
I can’t help but wonder what would happen if there was an ice storm that knocked out the power during sub-zero temperatures? We could go to our in-laws, but that would mean driving over 50 miles of ice covered roads. If I had diesel or Natural Gas Generators, I wouldn’t have to worry about it. And I could invite all of my relatives that live close by to stay here until power was restored. Of course if I did buy a generator, I would also need to install a Generator Transfer Switch.
If you don’t want to get caught flat-footed, and you are thinking about getting a Power Generator, do a little research on what type of generator is right for you.
I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a happy new year. We live in interesting times, and who knows what 2009 will bring?
I've added some links to the site. You will find them underneath my blog list.
Be Not Decieved is a message board that deals with things of a conspiratol nature. there is some good information there, check it out if you get a chance.
Prison Planet is a site run by Alex Jones. PP covers stories that might not be getting airtime in the mainstream media, and I visit it regularly. The Forum is where I first started posting some of my observations on comic books.
Dial B for Blog is a Blog where old comics are covered, and the guy who writes it is really funny!
Superdickery is a site that once and for all proves that Superman is a jerk, and not to be trusted.
If anyone is interested in doing a link exchange, let me know.
Shazzan and The Thing
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I remember seeing The Fantastic Four sharing the opening credits with
Shazzan and other characters on *Hanna Barbera's World of Super Adventure*,
and w...
It's that Time Again: 2024 in Synchromysticism
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*Greg asked me onto The Higherside Chats for a review of the big stories of
2024* and the syncs behind them, and you won't believe what happened next! ...
re the Madison school shooter
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This morning several people have contacted me on this subject, so I'll just
briefly mention that my family and friends have *not* been directly
affected ...
4our Pillars 7th Hip Hop Event Thu 7/7/15
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4our Pillars Hip Hop Event
The 4our Pillars are proud to announce that they're holding the 7th Hip Hop
event on Thursday 2nd July 2015
The 4our Pillar...
Syncnado 2: The Second One
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*or: The Jungian Thing*
The night was humid.
There I was, standing before my mostly movie themed tee-shirt collection,
straining to choose three shirts t...
