film » The Juggler

Dragon Night on the PTN

May 222013

Following the example set by Catland Books, the newest metaphysical store in New York, in conceiving what Unicorn Movie Night might look like once the Pagan Television Network (PTN) is up and running, I began to put together ideas for Dragon Movie Night: dragons being arguably the quintessential mythic Pagan creatures, before even unicorns, centaurs, and mermaids.

Film special effects had to catch up to the mythic possibilities of the dragon, for “Dragon movies” (movies that

Dragonslayer’s Dragon

feature a dragon in some important way) to become pleasingly viable. The producers of 1981′s Dragonslayer took inspiration from Disney’s animated short The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (itself an almost ideally realized Magickal work), augmented with research on St.George and the Dragon. The resulting film is practically a perfect Pagan fantasy adventure, set in the 6th century and featuring a Wizard, his apprentice, visionary prophecies, magic amulets, enchanted spears, and miraculous resurrection (with the brilliant British actor Ralph Richardson in one of his last film roles). The effects work was state-of-the-art for its time, involving a hydraulic model and puppets for the titular dragon; if it looks a little dated now, so does the original King Kong, which nonetheless keeps its mythic power. The creature has the evocative name of Vermithrax Pejorative (putting “vermin” together with “anthrax” is pretty clever; the “pejorative” on the end really sells it), and the movie attains elegiac status in depicting the medieval age “when wizards and dragons were finished.”

CGI-effects replaced animatronic replicas, and so 1996′s Dragonheart followed the same processes used to

Dragonheart’s Dragon

create the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. The inspiration was the idea of a “buddy” film that featured a medieval knight and a dragon (naturally, the last in the world; something about dragon movies is always drawn to the notion of the “last dragon”). In an amusing twist, the knight and the mythic monster con villagers with staged “dragon slayings”; the beast possesses Magickal powers, though, as a piece of his “dragon heart” saves the life of a young prince (who alas, grows up to be a tyrannical king), creating a symbiotic link between the two. Voiced by Sean Connery and modeled upon Chinese dragons, Dragonheart’s ”Draco” has an independent personality in addition to a name (Latin for “dragon,” but chosen in reference to the northern star constellation); in an act of celestial rebirth, Draco becomes a star in the constellation following his death at the movie’s end. A fanciful fantasy, Dragonheart (like Dragonslayer) would make a good first-feature on the Pagan Television Network’s Pagan-Family Dragon-Movie Night.

2002′s Reign of Fire, however, is a much darker film, unique for being set in an apocalyptic future as opposed to the medieval past- an apocalypse wrought by the resurrection of legendary dragons. The movie opens right after the turn-of-the-millennium (remember the turn-of-the-millennium?), when workers on the London Underground (the London subway) awaken a dragon which has been in hibernation after hundreds of years. This unleashes a new scourge of the fearsome creatures which terrified the Middle Ages, plunging the world into another Dark Ages chaos (Reign of Fire is a bit like Mad Max with dragons); Christian Bale has adopted a boy orphaned by the rampaging beasts, and organizes a small community of survivors (a charming sequence shows the adults entertaining the kids with a bedtime drama that is recognized as the confrontation between Luke and Darth Vader at the end of The Empire Strikes Back); Matthew McConaughey shows up as a road-warrior dragon-hunter, and the battle for humanity’s survival is underway. There are questions of logic in the film: can dragons really hibernate for centuries? can a single reawakened dragon really reproduce into a force that can plunge modernity into a bleak dystopia? can a single male dragon really sire an entire dragon population? All of that notwithstanding, it is interesting to see London as a disaster site (as opposed to New York), and shots of a deserted London ruled by dragons are chilling. Reign of Fire may not make a lot of sense if you think about it too much, but is exciting and fun all the same.

Since then, we have seen 2006′s Eragon, a medievalist fantasy about a boy bonding with a pet dragon; the dragons of the Triwizard Tournament in 2005′s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; the animated dragon in 2010′s DreamWorks production How To Train Your Dragon (about a young Viking dragon-slayer-in-training who befriends a dragon instead); and soon, arguably the most famous dragon in the fantasy genre, Smaug in the upcoming movie of The Hobbit. In addition there is the fascinating “docufiction” called Dragon’s World: A Fantasy Made Real (also titled “The Last Dragon”); to say nothing of the first great screen dragon, in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, which also features a wicked enchantress in a horned headdress, a trio of benevolent Faerey Godmothers, and the Faerey-Tale premise of a sleeping princess in a castle surrounded by thorny briars. It is clear that something about the great mythological beasts called dragons intrigues the mind and lends itself to entertainment of a Fantasy or Pagan nature- a trend that will undoubtedly continue, as movie effects improve in sophistication and as people continue to desire fantastical amusement.

Legend

culture, film No Responses »

May 182013

At some point during Legend, I decided that it could be boiled down to: Tom Cruise, Puck, Tinker Bell, and some Dwarves save the Last Unicorn from the Devil. As in The Last Unicorn (the first offering of Unicorn Pagan Movie Night at Catland Books, the newest metaphysical store in New York), Unicorns in Legend are seen as Pagan embodiments of sacredness and holiness: enough so that dark and evil things will wish to possess and destroy them. Tom Cruise appears as a guy named “Jack,” who might as well be surnamed “of the Green”; he takes the place of the Green Man in this film, as a living avatar of the wooded forest and the creatures of the wild.

Iconic Shot From Legend

There is a beautiful princess (of course), and tragedy of an inadvertent kind results when Jack takes the lovely royal to the secret place where unicorns live. Enraptured, she wants to touch the beautiful creatures; however, this innocent gesture unleashes a paralyzing freeze across the land, as well as the malevolence of the Lord of Darkness and his grotesque Goblin minions.

Pagan Princess, Tom Cruise, and a Unicorn; from Legend

Jack (Tom Cruise) and the princess are filled with grief and dismay- initially not realizing the serious consequences of their actions (which however misguided, were undertaken with purity of intent), and are horrified by the dreadful consequences which they could not have foreseen and which they fear they cannot remedy. Director Ridley Scott has an excellent, and epic, visual sense, and creates a breathtakingly beautiful cinematic fable, albeit kind of a mishmash of legendary motifs: the Dwarves remind of Lord of the Rings and Snow White, as do their evil counterparts, the Goblins; the princess becomes Persephone once the Dark Lord decides he wishes to make her his consort; and the Tinker Bell character is both a twinkling will o’the wisp as well as a capricious and unruly Celtic Wild Child. The Puck (while not so named, but easily identified, at least by his signature broom) is eerily effective, played by a wide-eyed kid with a dubbed adult’s voice. This character could be shifted into a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with good results.

Tim Curry as the Lord of Darkness, in Legend

The one drawback to the film for me, was the Lord of Darkness, very well-played by Tim Curry, but undeniably modeled upon the Devil. With a scarlet complexion and gigantic horns (I found myself wondering how much time Mr. Curry must have endured in makeup each morning), Legend’s Lord of Darkness recalls Mephistophiles and Milton, and represents (in context) a sort of hoofed and demonized Pagan Horned God. (Pagans tend to view Horned Divinities as positive and beneficial, as Representatives of Nature and the Life Force.) If you accept the premise that this exceptionally Pagan universe has the Devil in it, wanting to destroy everything, Legend works. Finally, it is interesting that “Legend” applies equally to the film as well as to the beginning of Mr. Cruise’s film career. He seems a little ill-at-ease in the movie’s opening, as a Nature Boy at-one with the forest, and comes into his own later, when the character transforms into the sort of action-adventure hero upon which so much of Mr. Cruise’s subsequent film career has been based. In retrospect, the final shot mythologizes Tom Cruise on the cusp of movie stardom as much as it mythologizes his character, Jack.

Unicorn Night on the PTN

culture, film 2 Responses »

May 162013

The Last Unicorn

I’m loving the newest NYC metaphysical store Catland, which hosts regular Pagan Movie Nights; their latest offering of The Last Unicorn and Legend (both of which, despite coming out in the ’80s, I had never seen before) gives an example of what the Pagan Television Network might look like, once it’s up and running, as the flicks (representing Unicorn Night on the PTN) would make a Pagan family-friendly double feature. The Last Unicorn is a lovely animated fable that deals with illusions versus reality, and the fact that people often miss or overlook the sacred and the magickal right in front of them. (Several of the folks in attendance described it as the film that rocked their universe when they saw it as nascent Pagan youths during the Reagan administration.) The main character (as one might guess) is a Unicorn who fears that she is the last unicorn. She lives in an enchanted forest, protecting the greenlands with her unicorn magic as the forest protects her. Anxious to discover if there are, in fact, any other unicorns however, she leaves her wooded home and sets off into the wider world- a move surely guaranteed to bring about trials and change, but learning and growth as well.

Old Witch Mommy Fortuna, in The Last Unicorn

She is initially kidnapped into a traveling Midnight Carnival by a greedy old Witch named Mommy Fortuna (voiced by Angela Lansbury, and wearing branch-like horned appendages on her head-wrap, with the customary Evil Witch’s familiar, a sinister raven). Mommy Fortuna’s “thing” is to create enchantments that allow her to pass off mundane animals as legendary ones (the mythological references in the movie are sort of all over the place, ranging from Greek mythology to medieval, to ancient Celtic); an employee of Mommy Fortuna’s, though, is a struggling Wizard who has faith in the powers of his Magick (uncertain as it is), whose powers might be faulty with unintended consequences, but are nonetheless real. (He is able to summon the shades of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, and to reveal the enchanted living reality of the forest trees; he is also a Juggler, by the by.)

The Last (Magickal) Unicorn

Along the way, the unicorn is transformed (through a well-intentioned mishap of the Wizard’s spells) into a human, causing her to learn a regret and pain that she had never experienced as a unicorn before. She meets a handsome prince, however, and an aged king who has stolen all the other unicorns in order jealously to possess them as his own. (He summons the Red Bull, a very Tain-like creature, to drive the unicorns into the ocean, where he can enjoy their “shining grace” all to himself; of course, this robs the world of unicorns, something which the old king, in his selfishness, ignores.) A small family is formed through the adversities and adventures; the unicorns are of course liberated; and happiness returns at the end, made all the more sweet despite, and because of, the interludes of grief and disillusion. Throughout, the peculiar mythological power of the Unicorn as a symbol of desire, and sacred spirituality of a very Pagan nature, is the driving force behind this charming film- as it is in the second of Catland’s Unicorn Movie choices: Legend (post to follow).

Life + Significance

comics, culture, film No Responses »

May 072013

Grant Morrison, the visionary intelligence responsible for revolutionizing the comic book art-form, is described as everything from an “idiot savant loon” to a “forward thinking auteur” in Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods, a documentary about this fascinating and hyper-creative man. The film covers his interest in comic books starting as a kid in Scotland, before following his first published works; the growth of his influence in the comics book field; and the emergence of a relentless and singular ideology which had the effect of changing the world as much as it changed the comic book art form.

He discusses becoming conscious of his image as a comics book creator and cultivating that image, as well as periods of “derangement of the senses” in which he sought out travel and foreign lands; immersion in the dark under-realms of existence; and exploration of mind-altering drugs. The suggestion of a certain brilliant madness starts to emerge in this section: “If I weren’t an artist, I’d probably be institutionalized” is a typical quote.

The mythic relevance that super-heroes hold for Mr. Morrison is a constant throughout the documentary. Early on, someone recalls a conversation with him, discussing Superman in terms of being a “proactive God” who loves every human being unconditionally. Mr. Morrison talks about the “timelessness” of super-heroes, calling them “one of the last great ideas that we have,” and remarking upon his fascination that Superman (who was “having adventures” before Morrison was born) will continue having adventures after Morrison’s death, and upon how reassuring it was is to imagine beings dedicated to stepping into disasters and calamities, and making things right.

As remarkable as it is to reflect upon Mr. Morrison’s discoveries about the importance of self-expression and following one’s visions; making connections with other people’s experiences and ideas; making permeable the “boundary between the real and the possible”; and how bringing one’s ideas into the world will influence other people in ways that seem magical: it is his discussions of magick and magickal experiment that grabbed my attention. The film opens with people talking about Mr. Morrison as a “magical person” who “changed their lives,” and feeling as if they were in the presence of a heroic or divine figure. Early on, Mr. Morrison is talking about his experiences with Chaos Magick and his impression that it produced results in the world. He relays how (at nineteen) he first tried magick “out of a Crowley book,” complete with “ritual banishings and all that stuff.” The results were so immediate and convincing that the young Morrison quickly formed the opinion that “magick was easy: if you ‘do this,’ then things follow,” a sureness of impression that seems never to have left him. He discusses how his belief developed, that magick was about enchanting, and expanding consciousness, and was life-changing, in that it enabled one “to be what one wanted to be.” Interestingly, as he tested it, magick came to appear natural and right to him.

Working with sigils became more and more significant to him, as he found that meditating upon his sigils brought the things that he wanted into his life; eventually, he came to form a belief about being in service to a sort of “hyper Sigil.” He talks about his life in terms of being a mystical process, going into Nature to commune and communicate with the Gods before coming back to work on comic books; having near-”shamanic” experiences with actors dressed as Superman; and finally his conviction that “everything is magick,” and that magick and reality are in fact one and the same.

In understanding a man who is able to change the world by exposing other people to the challenge of his ideas and the impressions of his images, Talking With Gods is a powerful film; in listening to a visionary discuss how magick and the evolution of magickal thinking contributed to this process, this documentary is remarkable. As is put early on in the narrative: Life + Significance = Magick.

The New Oz Movie

culture, film 1 Response »

Mar 142013

I very much enjoyed the new “Oz” movie, Oz the Great and Powerful (which might otherwise be thought of as, how James Franco became the Wizard). The movie overall was very congenial and charming, a worthy successor to the MGM original. I loved the call-outs to The Wizard of Oz: the recreation of the black-and-white Kansas backgrounds; the initial introduction of Oz characters in Kansas; Mr. Franco’s turban and robe, which recalled MGM’s Prof. Marvel. The inclusion of the marching guards and dancing Munchkins was a nice touch (it can’t be an Oz movie without dancing Munchkins); the flying monkeys were even more terrifying than in the original; and shots of Mila Kunis skipping down the Yellow Brick Road, and Mr. Franco strolling down the Yellow Brick Road, made visual metaphor of the Yellow Brick Road as a symbol of the process of life. James Franco took the Judy Garland role, getting blown into Oz by a tornado in a balloon (an air-symbol, I guess, as opposed to a house, which would be an earth-symbol, I suppose). Initially very confused (“What’s this Oz thing?”), Franco is eventually able (with help from his new Oz friends) to use early 20th century science to create the mythos of the Wizard of Oz: an interesting angle, as it reminds of how technological innovation can seem Magickal.

The most compelling aspect of the movie was obviously the titanic show-down between Good Witches and Bad Ones- demonstrating again that the Witch Archetype is adaptable to any number of potential story-lines. (I especially got a kick out of Glinda’s assertion at the end, that she doesn’t need any bubbles to fly.) The CGI-effects are superior (obviously) to what the nonetheless ingenious MGM film-crews were able to do in 1939; panoramic shots of the Emerald City and the Witches flying were wonderfully amazing, and point the way towards a future of Pagan film-making.

Presented as a prequel, Oz the Great and Powerful would make an admirable companion to The Wizard of Oz for a special Magick Movie Night once the Pagan Television Network is up and running. It also gives a good idea what Wicked: the Movie might look like.

Blessed Be, Pagans and Juggler Fans.

Jack

culture, film No Responses »

Mar 042013

So maybe that movie Jack the Giant-Slayer (latest in the Pop-Culture Faerey-Tale Renaissance) proved a little underwhelming when it opened (my friends wished it had been a little more), but you know what? I enjoyed it. It was tight, I thought; didn’t lag; had wit to it; and was elegiac when it needed to be. It basically takes the premise of “Jack and the Beanstalk” (some magick beans; a young guy named Jack; a really big beanstalk) and expands it into an action-adventure involving giants- which is fair enough. All the actors did a great job; the young guy playing Jack kept himself nicely alive in front of the camera, which is something that young actors can find difficult (sometimes resulting in wooden performances). My friends and I agreed that we found the opening sequence very charming, featuring twin vignettes of a little boy and a little girl being read bedtime stories (involving giants, of course) by their mom and dad. I noticed how the dad seemed like a giant when he stood up in the little kid’s room, and reflected upon how the entire adult world seems like giants to kids, and how the gentleness of reading kids’ bedtime stories encapsulates the need to protect the innocent vulnerability of small children.

Because of course there are giants in the world (or at least in a land in the clouds over your head), and if you climb up a beanstalk to them, you might be pulling all sorts of things down over your head, causing you to run for your very life. One thing that I find interesting about the movie, is that it is medieval monks who originally magickally empower the beans, in order to climb up high enough so as to see God. (But oops, there’s giants in the way.) Then (after discovering the giants), the monks magickally endow a crown with the power to subdue giants, in a shot of a Magick Circle. (Notice of the pop-culture reinforcement of Magick occurring through means of an Empowered Circle.) It’s just interesting to find monks functioning in this manner, is all.

A sequence that I found very compelling was the meeting between Jack and the lovely princess (who is dressed in traveler’s gear ambiguous enough to suggest one of those Shakespearean heroines who dress as a male in order to move about undetected). They are in Jack’s cabin, lit by candlelight, making their cautious way through their first experience of each other, as simultaneously water from the falling rain seeps under the floorboards, where one of those little magick beans has dropped. Suddenly- oh my gosh!- an enormous beanstalk is erupting out of the floor, bursting up into the sky (and through the roof of the cabin).

Faerey-Tales appear to address primal concerns, addressed in archetypal imagery- or they seem to provide insights into the mysteries of life; often these mysteries are those of puberty. In various stories, significant events are set into motion when a young woman cuts her finger, letting a drop of blood, or slips a pair of ruby-red slippers upon her feet. In the story of “Jack,” a young guy discovers magickal beans, and suddenly a huge vegetable stalk (Freud, people, do the Freud) leads him to fantastic places where he has never been before. But oops- there’s giants, and just as the sexual initiation of puberty leads to the adult world, with all sorts of menacing things: climbing a beanstalk will take you to the giants’ land (where you are going to be small and puny).

There are multiple metaphors going on with the movie’s beanstalk (which becomes a matter of concern for the whole kingdom, interestingly named “Cloister”). It can represent sudden catastrophe, calamity, disaster, being the avenue down which giants can invade your land and attack your castle.

Modern Paganism (pretty much all stripes and traditions of modern Paganism, it seems to me) has in common enough an identification with the Earth as a Sacred Being, and with the Greenness of Nature, that it seems fair to me to interpret any large, green, vegetable image in terms of potential “Paganness” (the Jolly Green Giant, anyone?) I suppose that sometimes Pagans, living in the bubble of the Pagan world, can lose sight of just how very different Paganism can look to those unfamiliar, and I suppose the radically game-changing emergence of Neo-Paganism (that Paganism that we call “Neo”) on the world’s cultural scene can appear as threatening as a huge beanstalk that will let giants into your land.

One interesting thing that I noticed, though; that guy Jack (gotta love that Jack) finds the Magick Crown (which is, of course, a circle worn about the head); places the Crown upon his own head; and boom boom- problem with the giants solved.

Any Faerey-Story will assure you at the end that everything will live happily ever after; it’s like Shakespeare’s canon- once you get through the Tragedies, you have the Faerey-Tale Romances, in which everything is resolved so perfectly and wonderfully well, none of the characters can quite believe it.

A couple of things that I notice as increasingly established in movies that appear “Pagan” in their set-up somehow: the whole thing has a really cool, modish-medieval look that seems very Renaissance Fair-inspired; there is a celebration sequence that seems very like a Pagan Gathering (was that a juggler that I saw?); and there is a curious interlude where one character heals another with healing herbs near a pond. I say “curious,” because this is the third movie I have seen that can be called “Pagan” somehow, where there is some sort of healing going on next to water. It’s just interesting, is all.

Craigslist Joe: The Online Aquarian

culture, film No Responses »

Feb 242013

I’ve never spent much time on Craigslist. It became popular at a time when I was much more interested in finding cheap textbooks for grad school, so my early online shopping was focused more on half.com and Amazon. I thought I could get all the information and products I could ever want on these two sites, plus a few others for travel, information, and social connections. I had what I needed, I thought. Why should I get caught up in yet another website that buys and sells other people’s junk? I had no idea there was so much more to Craigslist.

I really had no idea of the entire world that lived within Craigslist until I watched the 2012 documentary Craigslist Joe. The premise of the film is much like a cross between Morgan Spurlock’s projects Super Size Me and 30 Days. Joseph Garner resolves to live one entire month with no money, home, or contacts. His only source for food, shelter, income, and transportation is Craigslist. Armed with only the clothes on his back, a laptop, and a cell phone, Joe sets out to live for a month off the kindness off those he meets on Craigslist, the site he describes as “the 21^st century’s new town square.”

Joe’s motivations are very Aquarian: he explains at the beginning that 21^st century America has a love/hate relationship with their technology. Many, he says, bemoan the fact that our devices bring us closer together through the Internet at the cost of having any real face-to-face interaction. Human relationships, IRL, have suffered as people know each other merely as a Facebook status or an emotionally ambiguous text message. The driving force behind Joe’s experiment is to test this hypothesis and see if real human relationships still exist.

They do. In his month living off the dole of Craigslist, Joe meets new people who offer him kindness in a way that my introverted mind can only barely comprehend. Every night, he finds someone to offer free lodging. He travels across the country bumming rides using the virtual thumb that is Craigslist, and never fails to obtain a ride when he needs one. He visits with a Muslim family, a dominatrix, and a severely ill hoarder. He travels to San Francisco, New York, New Orleans, and even Juarez, Mexico meeting fascinating people and living off of their dimes. He even gets the chance to meet with Craigslist’s founder, Craig Newmark, who seems like a pretty cool guy. Along the way, he proves that, while our connections methods have changed and we don’t all share the same values, Americans still care for one another.

I still had this inspiring little movie in my head when I went to Pantheacon last weekend. What I witnessed there continued to prove the film’s sunny thesis. It seems that every year something happens Pantheacon weekend that challenges the Pagan community. Over the last few years, it has been a discussion over transgender rights and their conflict with groups that define themselves as exclusive to cis-females. It has been a painful, emotional battle on both sides, but progress has been made and many of the groups involved are beginning to move forward in the spirit of the conventions 2013 theme: “cooperation, tolerance, and love.”

Nowhere was this more evident than in the Rite of 1,000 Crowns, an ecstatic ritual led by a joint effort of the Come as you Are Coven’s Bloodroot Honey Priestess Tribe and Green Men, along with The Living Temple of Diana. In that beautiful ritual we honored the Goddess in all her forms, Masculine, Feminine, and Transgender, while also honoring ourselves in whatever gender we identify. We are all sovereigns. Can you get more Craigslisty-Aquarian than that?

Then, just as Pantheacon was ending, another challenge came our way. Now infamous, we were not even out of San Jose yet when we saw the Fox and Friends video that featured Tucker Carlson deriding Wiccans as “compulsive Dungeons and Dragons players” and “Middle-aged, twice divorced older” women “working as a midwife.” That wasn’t so much the problem for me as the factual errors; the piece discusses some strange idea of Wiccans celebrating 20 holidays and wanting to get all of them off work. What?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlXEGy20yTc

There has been a lot of discussion over Pagan blogs and podcasts over who IS and IS NOT Pagan. Non-Wiccan Pagans seek to distinguish themselves as their own traditions and no longer wish to be lumped in with a system they are not a part of. Reconstructionists, Druids, and others have been questioning their identification with the “Pagan” label. Non-Wiccan witches also have been carving their own niche in the world of Witchcraft. Some have even claimed that there is an “Anything But Wiccan” movement afoot.

And yet, when a piece makes it onto mainstream media that distorts and derides Wicca in particular, Pagans across multiple traditions came to Wicca’s defense. The Covenant of the Goddess released a statement demanding an apology, and so did Circle Sanctuary’s Lady Liberty League. Then The Lady Yeshe Rabbit of the Bloodroot Honey Priestess Tribe, acted in solidarity. On Facebook, I saw multiple statements of support from Pagan individuals across the spectrum of traditions. Thousands of people signed two online petitions. In our online community, labels don’t matter; people do.

And it worked. Tucker Carlson issued two apologies on Twitter, then issued another on-air apology in the same forum as the original comments. Yes, they were half-hearted and a little snarky. Yes, they still did not address the completely inept factual errors that were blasted about in the original piece, but it was a start. Given Fox’s viewer base, Carlson really didn’t have to do anything. The fact that he changed his tune and acknowledged that his conservative philosophy demands a “live and let live” attitude, shows the power we have working together in our community of religious ideas.

Then, less than a week later I watched our community really come together. The Temple of Witchcraft (of which I am a member) is in the process of creating a physical space for education, healing work, and public rituals. To do so, town codes require that they build a parking lot at the cost of $68,000. The Temple initiated an indiegogo campaign to raise the funds, and last week a donor offered to match any funds that were given within a 48-hour period.

The response from the Pagan community was huge. I saw the post shared on many Pagan Facebook pages from people of various traditions. In 48 hours, the Temple received $10,335 in donations, and the matching donation brought the total amount to $20,670. Just like Craigslist, Pagans come together to help each other yet again.

During the course of his documentary, Joe meets up with some very strange characters. Free spirits give him rides across the rolling miles of the United States and nice people who others would see as freaks share their stories of pain with him. He learns not only the sacredness of every human being, but also that – deep within that covering of cynicism- people will give of themselves to help others.

Joe runs across many people who are not like him at all, but who help, and that is probably the most inspiring part of this film. For him, Craigslist become the hub of an Aquarian world where people pitch in to help each other simply because they are human. In the end, he learns a lesson that echoes blogger Erik Scott’s reaction to the convention:

“These folks were almost nothing like me. And that, oddly enough, made me all the more fond of them.”

Craigslist Joe proves that, despite our differences, we can indeed work together in Pantheacon’s ideal of “cooperation, tolerance, and love.” Even if Tucker Carlson still doesn’t get our “20 holidays.”

NYC Street Snaps

culture, film No Responses »

Feb 212013

One of the fun things about living in New York is catching “street-shots” or “street-snaps” or “street-snapshots” as you walk around. These can include interesting “only in New York” street vignettes; they can include the random celebrity sighting; or they can afford a street-level insight into the cultural zeitgeist through select advertisements. For instance: the other night, my friend Gary and I were out walking, when a city bus comes zooming by, that has a poster advertising the upcoming Oz the Great and Powerful on its side, with a picture of the Witch (such as you might see above). Since I’m crazy excited to see this movie, and since I think it’s cool to see Witches represented in the public forum, I go, Gary! Gary! Look! It’s a Witch!!

But then Gary goes, Look on the back; it’s Wicked. So I look, and on the back of the bus, there’s a poster advertising the Broadway musical Wicked (still playing to enthusiastic audiences). And I think this is really interesting, because Manhattan buses do nothing but zoom back and forth across the cityscape, all hours, everyday, ferrying Manhattanites, and they’re seen by everybody on the street (who can’t help but see them), and here now is at least one that is carrying two separate images of Witches emblazoned on its sides, sending a fascinating subliminal message inviting its city audience to awaken to the idea and archetype of the Witch, and to investigate stories and plot-lines and entertainment involving Witches and the imaginative headspace therein. It’s sort of like, the Advertising Zeitgeist wants New Yorkers to become more open to the idea of Witches- or maybe that’s my impression, at any rate.

In the meantime, here is Beautiful Creatures just released, apparently derived from one of those Young Adult Supernatural/ Magickal/ Witchy novels that seems to be in vogue now; haven’t had a chance to see it yet (stuff going on), but it looks like it might be fun for a Pagan Pal movie-outing.

But the movie that I’m really looking forward to seeing, is this (above). I’m psyched to see that clever, quick-witted Jack slay some big ol’ Bullying Giants’ asses- especially as Jack and the Beanstalk is a Shamanic story in essence, with the Beanstalk being the device by which Jack moves between the two Worlds of the earthbound and the celestial (kind of like Dwarves move between the earthly and the subterranean). Jack, who’s brave enough to climb a beanstalk; stare down some Giants; and who gets rewarded with a bunch of gold at the end. Yay for that Jack!

Hansel and Gretel: Conflicted Witch Movie

film 1 Response »

Jan 312013

This is a film with a very confused schedule of release dates, as you can see from this image, projecting the film to the first of February. It was released January 25th.

“There are a few good Witches in the world; we see that now. But those who practice the Black Arts: we’re coming for you, to take you down.” One thing apparent about Hansel and Gretel: Witch-Hunters is that there is a perception among film producers of “real, good” Witches, and a need to indicate positive regard. The other thing apparent is that Faerey-Stories need Wicked Witches to operate.

The film is an example of a relatively recent genre of motion picture, the Faerey-Tale movie; other examples are Snow White and the Huntsman and Red Riding Hood. Set in a fanciful steampunk medieval village, the film gives an idea what Into The Woods might look like as a movie. Opening on a full moon and a fantastic, sweeping panoramic shot of a cottage nestled in a dark forest, the initial portion of HAG (Hansel and Gretel, get it?) is a very compelling retelling of the classic tale, culminating in a shrieking ghoul of a Witch, the most horrible Witch from the most terrifying nightmare ever. Dispatching her in the traditionally received manner of burning her in her stove, the orphaned duo (so medieval parchment accounts tell us, in the opening credits) go on to achieve fame as renowned Witch-Hunters, against a somewhat disturbing animated sequence depicting Witches getting hung and burned and destroyed while riding their brooms.

Famke Janssen as a depraved Grand Witch

The CGI effects of Witchcraft utilized as a sort of Magickal Super-Power are amazing, and shots of the Witches flying are spectacularly thrilling. Nonetheless, the inhuman depravity of these Witches is unsettling (they make Psycho Nancy in The Craft seem balanced and reasonable). The gusto with which violence against the Witches is embraced can be off-putting (Hansel at one point advocates skinning, beheading, and heart-ripping as useful means of killing Witches effectively, before advising burning as the best way to destroy a Witch adversary), and the latter sequences can seem alarming as a video-game rehearsal of full-blown Witch-takedown. Still and all, for drama to work, one needs a villain, and those who embrace the Dark Side of things are often more compelling, in a perverse way, than those who devote themselves to the Good. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe requires an Evil Witch, and the physical rot that Hansel describes settling into Bad Witches is no more than that which afflicts Lord Valdemort in Harry Potter. Since the earliest of human times (Witchcraft being surely as old as humanity), much fearful trepidation has been directed against the harmful effects of Witchcraft (undoubtedly a greater source of anxiety than benevolent Witchcraft), and to deny this is to deprive Fantasy Story of a necessary plot-device (Faerey-Tales in particular exist to address primal fears and anxieties). Few other entities represent Supernatural Horror as well as an Evil Witch, and this may just be part of the Witch Archetype with which those who wish to practice the Witch’s Craft may have to make their peace.

Hansel and Gretel, leaving behind a flaming pyre of Witches

One the other hand, what is interesting is the degree to which perception of the details regarding Witchcraft has apparently entered the zeitgeist of popular entertainment. HAG associates Witches (through a strange sort of mythology that they make up about something called a “Blood Moon,” but nonetheless) with the moon and moon cycles; with riding at night (one of the very earliest medieval definitions of a Witch was a woman who rode abroad at night in the company of a Pagan Goddess, for real); meeting in “rituals or gatherings”; conducting Sabbats; and utilizing potions, grimoires, and wands. There are degrees, apparently, to Witchcraft in HAG, which introduces the concept of a “Great or a Grand” Witch, and it is interesting to note that the film feels compelled to present Witches as both villains and victims. An important early plot-point is the (apparent) false accusation of Witchcraft against a sort of New Age-looking lady (the sort of hippie, earthy, New Agey lady whom one starts to notice in movies such as this, and who is subsequently waterboarded in an effort to get her to “confess,” which is an interesting modern commentary of some variety). For all that HAG associates Witchcraft with slaughtered animals and murdered children, it is interesting that it finds it necessary to mention “the unjust victims of Witchcraft accusations,” in what must a reference to the Burning Times thought too vital not to include. Soon enough the New Age lady is performing the Healing Arts on Hansel, taking him swimming (nude) in a Healing Pool, in a scene (Pagan lady, uninitiated man, nude bathing, Magickal waters) also noted in last year’s The Wicker Tree. Of course, if you couldn’t guess, the lady is a White Witch, and here is how the concept of a non-Evil Witch gets entered into the picture.

At its best, HAG functions like a medieval spoof of shows like CSI and Law and Order; my other Witch friends agreed that they found it fun and engaging, despite all the Psycho Witches being wiped out with such macabre enthusiasm. My one friend commented that he enjoyed the character of the Grand Evil Witch, in the way that villains can be perversely enjoyable. What I find interesting about HAG is that it finds it necessary to introduce a White Witch, to have a balance to the Wicked Witches. It’s a small smidgin of a role, and I note that at the end, the White Witch combats the Evil Witches not through White Witchcraft, but through a machine gun (armed White Witches; that’s a concept). I also find it interesting that, kind of like the “token, expendable Black Guy character,” introduced into an action movie in order to be the “one to die” so that the “White Folks” can live, the White Witch is killed at the end of the movie (not quite sure why the White Witch couldn’t survive the movie, but I guess they wanted a Noble Victim). My ultimate take on Hansel and Gretel: Witch-Hunters- it is a fun enough movie, albeit one that embraces depraved Witchcraft with uncommon brio. It is most interesting, I think, for its sense of responsibility in presenting (in small degree) a “balanced” portrayal of Witches. That is a hopeful sign, I feel, as through balance can come sympathy and interest; if subsequent movies can open this small Good Witch role into increasingly dominant positions- Witches can begin to make advances in Hollywood entertainment.

2013 Oscar Contenders: Lincoln and Life of Pi

culture, film No Responses »

Jan 282013

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.

-F Scott Fitzgerald

Lincoln and Life of Pi. You would think that there are very few Oscar-nominated films that are as far apart in style, storyline, and theme. After all, one is a political intrigue drama about one of America’s most iconic historical figures (and perhaps one of the most beloved men in the West – I’ve seen statues of Abraham Lincoln in places as far apart as London and Havana). The other is a beautiful, surrealistic tale of a young boy from India who faces hazards not quite as dangerous as U.S. Congressmen: the open ocean, a lifeboat, and an adult Bengal tiger.

And yet, there is so much these two films have in common. Both are life and death battles against seemingly insurmountable forces, bringing out the best as well as the worst of the man who must face them. Both require great sacrifice of those men and take severe a physical and mental price from them. Both stories require their protagonist to repair his relationships with his demons, whether those demons come in the form of family, failure, or feline. And in the end, both films teach us of the human spirit and what is possible when you have an unshaking faith in hope.

Both films honor the Warrior Spirit. True, these warriors are not of the traditional, spear and shield type, but they are warriors nonetheless. In Lincoln, we see a humanized version of this celebrated figure. This is not a biography of the 16^th president, but rather a dramatization of one of the most difficult – and perhaps the most historically important – battles of his life: The fight to pass the 13^thAmendment and abolish slavery in the U.S. forever.

It is a battle that takes both the high and low ground. The President cannot wait until the Civil War is won because the returning Southern congressmen would never vote for it. As if that isn’t enough, only the most radical Northern representatives would vote for such a volatile bill in peacetime. Lincoln (played incredibly well by Daniel Day Lewis) must appeal to all parties: passionate activists for equality, opportunistic conservatives, and lame-duck members of the opposing party – all while conducting a bloody war and negotiating with his enemies.

This picture of Lincoln- far from the “Honest Abe” stereotype we learned in elementary school- does not blush at bribing some, lying to others, and outright threatening the rest for the cause he feels to be right. It is a Lincoln with a sharp wit and sharper mind who sees the political battleground the way a seasoned general sees the field of war. Where others get lost in small skirmishes, he navigates the big picture, leading it slowly and inexorably toward conclusion. This is a patient, determined warrior who sees victory through.

Pi’s battle is very different. Shipwrecked and stranded on a lifeboat in the deepest part of the Pacific, his entire family lost at sea, Pi must battle nature for his goal- survival. Pi’s story includes all the elements we’ve all seen before in shipwreck films: sharks, starvation, sunburn, and that visceral delirium that comes from desperation and uncertainty. But a little turn of plot causes a huge twist in this survival story. You see, Pi’s family owned a zoo, and their shipwreck stranded the animals as well as the humans. In the chaos, Pi ends up on the same lifeboat as one of the zoo’s residents – a tiger.

So Pi battles the elements, but he also battles his fellow survivor. No holds are barred in the depiction of this tiger (named “Richard Parker”). The early scenes with the wild animal are brutal. Other, less powerful animals make it onto the boat with Pi, and their fates leave little doubt about the nature of Richard Parker. It can be easy to romanticize tigers because of their beauty, scarcity, and performance in Las Vegas magic shows, but this film avoids that. Richard Parker is dangerous, and Pi is at war with him just as much as he is at war with the sea.

Like Lincoln, however, Pi must reach across the aisle and find ways to resolve a terrible situation with an implacable enemy if he is to eventually come out on top. Over time, Pi learns to co-exist with his fearsome boat-mate. Like Lincoln, the warrior in Pi does not allow him to give up. Like Lincoln, Pi learns to use his mind to overcome battles that others would blush at. These men are both fearsome warriors, not with swords, but facing just as much mortal danger as soldiers.

However, I think the most important similarity between these two films comes in the realm of mythology. Abraham Lincoln has become American mythology. Sure, he was a real person, but that doesn’t make him any less mythological. We hear so many apocryphal tales about him, his childhood, his career as a lawyer, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and even his death that it can be hard to separate truth from fiction. My favorite saying is echoed my historian James Loewen, who talks about American schoolchildren believing, inexplicably, that Lincoln, “Was born in a log cabin he built with his own two hands.”

With all these tales about a man who lived after the invention of photography but before widespread use of recording, it can be easy to get a larger-than-life picture of him. The truth is that Lincoln was a man. He struggled to prove himself to his mentally ill wife. He grieved over a lost son. He agonized over every decision he made. He suspended Habeus Corpus and subjected the Union to a whole host of almost dictatorial war powers, all in the name of democracy. He also saved the union during one of its darkest times. In many ways, he was – as his assassin claimed – a tyrant, but his tyranny preserved the country. There’s a lot to hate and a lot to love about him. He was both tyrannical and compassionate, hero and villain, Heirophant and Devil. Like myth, the stories about him are both true and false.

Pi’s story just seems so allegorical. Could someone really be trapped on a lifeboat for months with a tiger? From the very beginning, the style of the film suggests fantasy. So much of the art direction is just a shade beyond realistic. The incandescent whale glows just a little too brightly, the animals on the boat seem a little too human, the island he briefly lands on seems just a shade too green. Yet, it is presented as a realistic tale.

Late in the film, you are called to account for that. You are asked what you prefer to believe: is Pi’s story of survival an incredible tale of a human facing dangers from above and below, or is it all just the delusions of a starving, suffering, exhausted boy?

Or, like the mythology of Lincoln, is it both? How good are you at holding two opposing thoughts in your head?

Older Entries