Semantink’s got all sorts of things going on right now. If you haven’t taken a look around the site in a while, do yourself a favor and check it all out. Season 2 of The Undergrounds has begun, and updates every Monday. Issue 4 of Mythoi is out, and you can expect to see those start to pop up on a more monthly basis as well. Sim-I is building up some steam as well. You can also expect Semantink to release some new books this year as well.

Also, Free Comic Book Day is Saturday! You can go to a comic book store near you and check out some free material. If you’re up to a drive to the Inland Empire, head over to 4 Color Fantasies. A few of the Semantink folk’ll be there handing out goodies and signing issues. A few other industry names will be there as well, so do the right thing and go.

Finally, with some sadness, I must tell you that this will be the last Book Report for a while. Your pal Akatzen has got a full plate this summer and won’t be reading as much as he’d like to (plus his sadness makes him talk in the third person). But as I get books done I’ll be coming back to tell you all about em, never fear.

Currently I’m reading Eyewitness to History, edited by John Carey (pub 1987). The book is a compilation of firsthand accounts of events in history going back to ancient Greece. The first account was written by Thucydides about Plague In Athens in 430 BCE. There are personal writings by Julius Caesar, Marco Polo, Pliny the Younger, and other famous and not-so-famous figures from history writing about events in their day. It’s a pretty fascinating read: 200 stories spanning almost two and a half thousand years. Check it out.

Until next time,
Still paddlin’ the old knew…
_-Akatzen-_

First off, the second season of The Undergrounds is almost here! Many of your favorite monsters from season 1 are back, but this time they’re taking up a little office space, and they find they have to share it with some new monsters. Job applications are currently being posted on the new page and the first issue will be posted very soon.

Okay, so last week when I was reviewing Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman I mentioned seeing a bunch of billboards lately claiming that May 21, 2011 is the Second Coming of Christ. I dismissed the whole thing out of hand, mainly because I wanted to talk about the book. So today I thought I’d take a closer look at this May 21 prophecy.

This prediction comes from Harold Camping, a civil engineer who broke away from his church and started Family Radio. Camping believes that the Bible leaves clues as to the exact date of The Second Coming and these clues can be solved with mathematics. Critics of Camping point out that not only does this idea conflict with Matthew 24:36 (“Of that day and hour knows no man”) but also that the last time he used mathematics to predict the end of the world he got the date wrong.

In 1992 Camping self-published a book titled 1994? where he predicts The Second Coming to occur on September 4, 1994. Apparently Camping had a “Get Out of Ridicule Free” card, because after he was proven wrong (in the simplest way possible) he made a new prediction for May 21, 2011. Somehow people believe him this time.

So what exactly does Camping predict? According to the website:

On May 21, 2011 two events will occur. These events could not be more opposite in nature, the one more wonderful than can be imagined; the other more horrific than can be imagined.

A great earthquake will occur the Bible describes it as “such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.” This earthquake will be so powerful it will throw open all graves. The remains of the all the believers who have ever lived will be instantly transformed into glorified spiritual bodies to be forever with God.

On the other hand the bodies of all unsaved people will be thrown out upon the ground to be shamed.
The inhabitants who survive this terrible earthquake will exist in a world of horror and chaos beyond description. Each day people will die until October 21, 2011 when God will completely destroy this earth and its surviving inhabitants.

How’d Camping arrive at the year 2011?
Using math and some philosophical assumptions, Camping places The Great Flood in 4990 B.C. Remember the Great Flood? Where God had Noah build a boat 450 feet long to hold two of every animal on the whole earth (and his family, conveniently) while it rained for 40 days and nights and water covered the earth.
Genesis 7:4 says that God gave Noah seven days of warning before he would destroy the earth. The Second Book of Peter 3:8 says that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years. So Camping believes God left a 7,000 year hint as to when he would destroy the planet.

“But wait, Akatzen,” you might say. “I’ve got a calculator here, and 4990+2011=7001. Doesn’t that mean the end of the world should’ve happened last year?” Well, Camping says you need to subtract a year because there’s no such thing as a Year 0.
Whoops. Let’s pretend he’s right, that babies are automatically 1 when they are born and that time is only measured in years and not months, weeks, days, hours, etc. If there’s no Year Zero, he’d need to subtract two years since there’d be no Year Zero A.D. and B.C. Which means it still should have happened last year.

Another “proof” Camping offers is a bit more abstract. According to how he interprets scripture, the number five equals “atonement”, the number ten equals “completeness”, and the number seventeen equals “heaven”. Camping believes Jesus died on the cross on April 1, 33 A.D. (Many Biblical scholars agree that Jesus is likely to have been crucified around this time) April 1, 33 A.D. to April 1, 2011 C.E. is 1,978 years or 722,449 days (according to the Gregorian solar year). April 1, 33 A.D. to May 21, 2011 C.E. is 722,500 (again, according to the Gregorian solar year).
Well, check this out! If you multiply 5 by 10 by 17 you get.…850. Hmmm.
Oh, but wait! If you square 850 you get 722,500. See that? Infallible proof that math can get you to whatever number you need it to be.

Another “proof” that Camping offers is that Gay Pride is a sign of the end times. The issue Camping deals with is not whether homosexuality is a sin (I believe it isn’t) or whether it is condemned in the Bible (I also believe it isn’t) but that God actually had a plan for Gay Pride to be a sign to believers that the end is near. This “proof” is just plain crazy.
Well, all the “proofs” require you to walk a bit down Irrational Lane, I suppose. And that’s why I so casually dismissed the issue in the previous post. Hope you all had fun!

Until next time,
Still paddlin the old knew…
_-Akatzen-_

Guess what! A new Mythoi is out and you should totally read it. There’s a new artist for this one, and it sure is pretty.

A Family Radio “Judgment Day” billboard in Houston, TX (Photo by gsloan via Flickr)

My favorite is the zany and hilarious account of the end of the world documented in Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, written in 1990. The book combines a Douglass Adam’s kind of hilarity with a Christopher Moore’s Lamb (or Kevin Smith’s Dogma) kind of reverence in mockery in a tale about the coming of the antichrist.

The story revolves around several intertwined story-lines, though the main one involves Aziraphale and Crowley, an angel and a demon who have somehow turned out to be friends, and their search for the antichrist. Unfortunately, the child who everyone thinks is the antichrist is perfectly normal due to an unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on how you look at it) mix-up at birth.
One of the things I love about the book is Crowley’s outlook on evil. He figures he doesn’t have to do much, since people are so much more creative with negative energy than demons give them credit for. He doesn’t have to plant evil thoughts in people, he just has to create a traffic jam and people come up with plenty of evil thoughts on their own.

The book is plenty of good fun, and if the crazies turn out to be correct with the May 21st deadline, it might be good to have read some source material.

Until next time,
Still paddlin’ the old knew…
_-Akatzen-_

If you haven’t already done so, before you do anything else go check out Issue #0 of Semantink Publishing’s newest property Sim-I. Once you are done there, head over to the Semantink Store to catch up on Mythoi and pre-order a copy of Season 1 of The Undergrounds. These are all activities I am sure you will not regret.

On May 20, 2011 movie-goers can expect to be entertained by the next chapter in The Pirates of the Caribbean, called On Stranger Tides. The movie brings back Johnny Depp to reprise his role as Cap’n Jack Sparrow and Geoffrey Rush as Hector Barbossa, and it also introduces Ian McShane as Blackbeard and Penélope Cruz as Blackbeard’s daughter Angelica.
When the film hits theaters, you can watch it in Disney 3d, IMAX 3d, and regular (and IMAX) 2d.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Until next time,
Still paddlin’ the old knew…
_-Akatzen-_

Villainous.

Glorious.

Ridiculous.

Such was this past week in movie-related news. Oh, and here’s an Ape.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In light of all recent developments, let’s take a trip to the High-Low Country courtesy one of the more intriguing bits of casting news: Michael Shannon as General Zod in Zack Snyder’s MAN OF STEEL.

No, he’s not Dexter.

Kentucky born Shannon has had quite a presence in theater and film in a wide-ranging career, and most recently he became a series regular on Boardwalk Empire. While performing in Chicago, Shannon helped form the Red Orchid Theatre, and to this day performs there when he has a hiatus from the film world.

The first high of his career could also be called his first film as he starred in the tiny part of a groom-to-be in Groundhog Day way back in 1993. If you don’t remember his presence, neither do I.

After that, he starred in a few smaller capacities throughout the nineties until Tigerland and Pearl Harbor came along. Still locked in supporting roles, usually small, Shannon also dabbled with Tom Cruise in Cameron Crowe’s remake Vanilla Sky.

Moving to his low-low moment, Michael Shannon possessed the role of the fearful villain in Kangaroo Jack. Perhaps the insanity behind Kangaroos is what pushed him to help develop and start the stage character of Peter Evans in the play Bug, which was later adapted into a feature film with Ashley Judd and Harry Connick, Jr. directed by William Friedkin. This is still a low moment for Shannon, as the film Bug was virtually unwatchable and a questionable experiment by an otherwise fine director and cast.

Shannon dabbled in a few more unheard of supporting roles in larger films (Bad Boys II, World Trade Center) and earned much acclaim for his role as Son Hayes in Shotgun Stories. Shotgun Stories revolved around a feud between brothers that erupts after the death of their father.

It must’ve been a comedy.

From this acclaim, Shannon’s rise to the High Country continued with a role in late Sydney Lumet’s final film, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. This role was immediately followed by the very showy, scene-stealing insane son of the neighbors in Revolutionary Road, which scored Shannon an Oscar nomination. The role, seen by many as the best part of the film, was a character designed to provide a deep and dark reflection of the “happy couple” portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Shannon’s character had numerous brief moments overcome with his troubles and insanities, which were troubling and uncomfortable to watch, and also were enough to propel him to the top of everyone’s “wanted” list for dark and tortured characters. Such is the difficulty of being a master character actor with a dark face.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Since his Oscar nomination, Shannon appeared in the dreadfully panned Jonah Hex as well as two of Werner Herzog’s latest, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans and  My Son, My Son, What have ye done? , inspired by a true story about a young actor who re-enacts a personal Greek tragedy in the act of killing his mother with a sword.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Recently, Michael Shannon has shown consistent character strength in the role of the over-zealous Federal agent in Boardwalk Empire, and he gained enough support and attention from Zack Snyder to be confidently named for the role of General Zod in the yet-to-be filmed Man of Steel.

Michael Shannon has truly walked uphill for many years to get to the High Country, and his only time dwelling in the lowlands has been on his way to the top. How long will he last? Will he take another Kangaroo Jack excursion into the valley of career detention, or remain at the top of everyone’s villain list? Will he be able to grow out of the dark territory he now rules?

I think so. I think Shannon definitely has a range, some of which we haven’t been able to see yet. If he can be dark and haunting, then he has the superior ability, like Heath Ledger, to name one, to bounce into a charming place and sweep a lady off her feet. Don’t doubt the dark and brooding types in the land of romance and heroics.

Here’s a last minute video in which Shannon discusses his “chemistry test” with Superman Henry Cavill:

Click here to view the embedded video.

You are dismissed!

Sgt. Angle

I encourage everyone that is reading this to click on this link for Cleverbot! If you haven’t heard about this website, then let me tell you about it: essentially, the site is a chat site, but you never talk to another living person. Instead, all of your comments are listened to and responded to by a computer that is learning. That’s right, there is a website where you can have a conversation with an artificially intelligent computer that will learn from what you have said to it in order to respond better to people in general. I encourage us all to go there so that this computer can learn how to better interact with people. According to the site, the machine is around 40% human. Sometimes, the answers that are received from the computer are cryptic and down-right weird. However, there are times when the answers it gives are in perfect context and completely understandable. Sometimes, the computer can even be funny. For instance, I thought I would test the machine’s knowledge of pop culture, so I asked, “Do you like Lady Gaga?” To which the machine replied, “Yes. Me and Lady GaGa are married.” Considering that the machine is evaluating the text that you respond to, it is pretty incredible that it can generate those kinds of responses.

The next piece of artificial intelligence comes from a recent episode of Jeopardy. Most of you have probably guessed that I’m referring to the (by now famous or perhaps infamous) computer known as Watson. Watson appeared on the show and was programmed to actually think about (and learn from) the questions that it received. When this story first came out, I remember thinking of the old folk story “John Henry.” Here is a link to the story of John Henry. This link features the legends as well as some deliberation about the actual man. The gist of the story is that John Henry died while trying to beat a machine (which he does) in a contest to see who could get through a rocky mountain the fastest. In reality, Watson mopped the floor with the greatest Jeopardy champions that have ever been produced. Here are a few videos of Watson in action:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The last thoughts that I will leave you with are for a population that exists in the United States and is known for their incredible phobia of electrical technology: the Pennsylvania Dutch (also known as the Amish). These people believe that technologies separate a person from the glorious bounty of nature and God. Their belief carries them so far as to forsake all electrical appliances and devices. Needless to say, they are often criticized for a certain ignorance, and yet, they are also admired for their ability to survive in this world in the middle of a very progressive nation because of a belief. In a way, they are like the Luddites of old (click here for a link that explains the Luddite revolution that occurred in the eighteenth century) in that they believe that technology ultimately leads to oppression by our machines. That’s all for this week, I’ll be back next week with another interesting topic.

Before you do anything else, go check out Issue #0 of Sim-I. It’s free and fantastic!

Last week I brought you a look at Thomas Pynchon and the conspiracy he weaves in The Crying of Lot 49. This week I thought I’d tease your brain a bit by talking about one of my favorite conspiracies. No, it’s not about who really killed JFK or what’s really at Area 51 or if aliens actually built the pyramids or if the moon landing was staged. If you want to know more about all that, I’m sure Dr. Cellus would love to elucidate.

One of my favorite little conspiracies involve the band TOOL and a possible secret song order on their fourth album Lateralus.

Readers of The Da Vince Code and mathematicians are probably reasonably familiar with the Fibonacci sequence, and this Sequence is one of the main contributors to the conspiracy.

The Fibonacci sequence was introduced to the west by Leonardo Fibonacci of Pisa around the 12th Century, though he picked it up from Indian mathematicians while studying their Hindu-Arabic numerals. How it works is within the sequence, any number is the sum of its two preceding numbers. So, starting from 0, you’d have: 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13… To graph the Fibonacci sequence, consider each number to be the length of one side of a square, like so:

If you were to connect the opposite corners of each square with an arc, you would end up with a spiral, like so:

This spiral can be found all over nature, such as in snail shells. The Fibonacci Sequence can be found in the branching of trees and in the arrangement of a pine cone. In fact, the Fibonacci Sequence is often associated with another mathematical, artistic, and architectural term: The Golden Ratio, represented by the Greek symbol phi (φ).
German psychologist Adolf Zeising found the Golden Ratio in the arrangement of branches along the stems of plants and of veins in leaves, in the skeletons of animals and the branchings of their veins and nerves, in the proportions of chemical compounds, and in the geometry of crystals. Neurobiologists found it in the clock cycle of brain waves. The lines of a pentagram adhere to the Ratio. Leonardo da Vinci, Salvador Dali, and Dubussey (among others) utilized the Ratio in their art. Zeising proposed that the Golden Ratio may be a universal law.

“A universal law in which is contained the ground-principle of all formative striving for beauty and completeness in the realms of both nature and art, and which permeates, as a paramount spiritual ideal, all structures, forms and proportions, whether cosmic or individual, organic or inorganic, acoustic or optical; which finds its fullest realization, however, in the human form.” 1854

“A paramount spiritual ideal…whether cosmic or individual” is an idea that TOOL listeners will find familiar. But that doesn’t mean there is an alternative track order on an album, does it? Well, there are clues that suggest it might be the case.

The first clue is that the title track of Laturalus has an alternate spelling: Lateralis. So, to find the alternate order, you need to examine the track with the alternate spelling of the album title. (This was claimed to be a production error, but like any good conspiracy people will try to cover their tracks.) The Fibonacci sequence is featured specifically on this track. Crazy enough, but then, the time signature for the song is a 9:8:7 time signature, which is a measure of nine beats, followed by a measure of eight, and then a measure of seven, and then repeats. It can throw off a casual listener if they’re not careful. Where the Fibonacci sequence comes into play is in the syllabic layout of the verse.
“Black/ then/ white are/ all I see/ in my infancy/ red and yellow then came to be/ reaching out to me, let’s me see/ As below so above and beyond, I imagine…“
After reaching 13 syllables on a line, Maynard reverses the order, and goes back down to 3 syllables. Notice how as he works his way up, the lines go like this syllabically: 1,1,2,3,5,8,8,13. Those two lines of 8 separate the 13 line, which I believe is another clue we’ll get to in a moment.

One of the main refrains of the song is “overthinking and overanalyzing separates the body from the mind”, which is perhaps the clue which confirms we’re on the right track (or it’s a hint to tell us not to look so deeply, at any rate the difference between body and mind is one thematic statement of the album).
At the end of the song, Maynard sings, “And following our will and wind, we may just go where no one’s been/ We’ll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one’s been/ Spiral out, keep going/ spiral out, keep going…”

Spiral out, eh? Well, they stop Fibonacci’s Sequence at 13 before either resetting (in the case of the drums) or reversing (in the case of the lyrics), and there are 13 tracks on the album. So maybe that’s a clue as to where we should spiral out from.
The beginning of a spiral is its center, and the middle of the album is Parabol and Parabola, two songs which obviously are meant to be played one after the other.
So if we line up the tracks 1 through 13 on a sheet of paper, and start spiraling outwards we get a track order of 6,7,5,8,4,9,3,10,2,11,1,12 and finishing with track 13. Almost works, but not quite.

Look at the song. Danny Carey, the drummer, always connects 13 to 1, so maybe the tracks should also. And Maynard hits 13 and then starts going backwards. If we look at our new order, Lateralis is now the middle of the album, where Parabol would be if this were the normal track order.
So if we take what Danny and Maynard are doing with the Fibonacci sequence as clues, we can assume track 13 connects to track 1, and starts spiraling back inwards. Remember how Maynard isolated the 13 syllable line by having two lines of 8? Maybe we’re on the right track.

So let’s start a second spiral from 13 and go inwards using the numbers we would have left if we stopped the outward spiral at track nine.
The new track order then, would be 6,7,5,8,4,9,13,1,12,2,11,3,10. Does it work? Check out what Maynard sings in Track 1: The Grudge: “Saturn ascends, choose one or ten…” The movement of Saturn across the sky coincides inversely with the sun. If Saturn ascends, the sun is setting.
If we choose the original track order, we start with track 1. If we choose the alternate order, we end with track 10.
And if we look at the songs thematically, with Lateralis being the middle of the album, it accomplishes what is mentioned in the song: it “separates the body from the mind”. There is a journey now that we can follow through the music; the first spiral representing the body, the second representing the mind.

Tracks 6 and 7: Parabol/Parabola
These songs are about experiencing life by recognizing “this as a holy gift and celebrate our chance to be alive and breathing.“
Track 5: Schism
Maynard continually says, “I know the pieces fit” but a lack of communication has made them fall apart. And finally, he says, “Cold silence has the tendency to atrophy any sense of compassion.“
Track 8: Ticks and Leeches
“My blood is bruised and borrowed, you thieving bastards. You have turned my blood cold and bitter, beat my compassion black and blue.” Notice how the idea of compassion is now connected between the two songs in the new track order. At the end, he says, “I hope you choke.“
Track 4: Mantra
There aren’t any words, and in the original track order, just sounds like a strange vocal drone. In the new order, it comes across almost like a stylized gasping for air, which is eerie after Maynard’s wish, “I hope you choke.” Another interesting thing about this song is that the song plays the same if you play it backwards. Perhaps it’s another clue that there are two ways to listen to the album, and both are correct…

Track 9: Lateralis
“I embrace my desire to feel the rhythm, to feel connected enough to step aside and weep like a widow; to feel inspired to fathom the power, to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain, to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human.” Here’s the middle, the thread both tying together and separating body and mind.

Track 13: Faaip De Oiad
The title of the song means “Voice of God” in Enochian, which is supposedly the language of angels.
This song is just creepy, all weird sound effects and buzzing covering a recording of a phone call on the Art Bell radio show (The phone call later proved to be a hoax). What this song does do, though, is signal a shift from a journey with another to a journey with the self.
Track 1: The Grudge
It’s a call to let go of the grudges that have built from the journey with another. “Let the waters kiss and transmutate these leaden grudges into gold. Let go.“
Track 12: Triad
Again, a track without words, but it has a tribal rhythm and a driving sound which creates images of struggle.
Track 2: The Patient
“If there were no rewards to reap, no loving embrace to see me through this tedious path I’ve chosen here, I certainly would have walked away by now. And I still may. I’m gonna wait it out.” The struggle from the previous song starts to wear down the speaker.
Track 11: Reflections
“As full and bright as I am, this light is not my own…And as I pull my head out I am without one doubt, don’t want to be down here feeding my narcissism. I must crucify the ego before it’s far too late. I pray the light lifts me out before I pine away.” The speaker recognizes the light within him, and seeks to separate that light from what he recognizes as his body.
Track 3: Eon Blue Apocalypse
Another track without words, but if the title suggests an apocalypse, the world ends not with a bang, but a whimper.
Track 10: Disposition
The alternate order ends with the conclusion that there always needs to be that journey with another to pull your self through. There are only three lines in the song. “Mention this to me. Mention something, anything. Mention this to me and watch the weather change.”

In this new track order the songs flow musically better in this order, too, in my opinion. The fade-out of Lateralis blends more naturally into the static fade-in of Faaip de Oiad and the end of Faaip de Oiad is echoed in The Grudge.
It’s easy to see why anyone might say I’m looking waaaaaay too deep into things; on the other hand I’m not so sure TOOL would be pissed off I’ve listened to their music so much that I find deeper personal meaning for me in it, even if it’s unintended.

Until next time,
Still paddlin’ the old knew…
_-Akatzen-_

There were two recent stories floating across Movie-News outlets that I wanted to focus on this week and hopefully drum up some conversation and thoughts on the topic of collaboration.

Film is a collaborative process, through and through. You might be the type to point directly to Hitchcock, Truffaut, or even Scorsese and Antonioni, and talk until you’re blue in the face about the Auteur Theory and what it means to be a filmmaker. Well, it’s true that the writer/director maintains a good amount of creative control, some of the time, when it comes to the finished product. But that dude can’t hold a camera, clap the slate, roll sound, and act in the film all at the same time. It just cannot physically be done. Once you bring in that second entity, whether it’s a sound dude with a boom mic, or a girl who can load a mag in record timing, you’re film has become a collaboration.

I’ve talked before about famous pairings throughout film history (Steven Spielberg and John Williams, for one) but the two recent articles have to do with fresh pairings in the name of creative rebirth.

The first actually addresses the auteur theory, as this director has been associated with the premise since his movie The Sixth Sense skyrocketed him to fame over a decade ago. I’m talking about M. Night Shyamalan and today’s announcement that he’ll be collaborating with Will Smith and Jaden Smith on an upcoming Sci-Fi flm. Shyamalan co-wrote the script with Gary Whitta (Book of Eli) and at first Will Smith was only on-board as producer. Until recently.

What developments occurred to convince Smith to star alongside his son? No one knows, but the best guess involves a special deal giving Smith final cut over Shyamalan. Given the performance of Last Airbender and most of the director’s latest films, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if this power setup drew Smith in front of the camera. Then again, M. Night does tend to craft an attractive image and visual style (when not adapting Airbender tales), and his clout with such talents as Bruce Willis, Paul Giamatti, Mark Wahlberg, and Mel Gibson prove that he’s got quite a way with bigger names, making them all look somewhat great on-screen.

Here’s hoping the writing contributions of Whitta can outweigh any undesirable aspects of the story. But the bigger question out of all of this is the effect the movie’s performance will have on the Smith family’s career. Jaden is only just getting started, but his first two bigger pictures (The Pursuit of Happyness and The Karate Kid) nabbed hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide, and he’s got the confidence his father gained when his was three times the kid’s age. And Will has only really starred in blockbuster successes, currently in the middle of filming Men in Black III. He’s not hurting for cash, and I would bet that, should the next Shyamalan opus totally bomb, Will would land on his feet and hit the ground running. I mean, look what happened to Mel Gibson after Signs…

The second piece of collaborative news to hit the Nets today is that Shane Black will only be directing Iron Man 3. The script will be penned by Drew Pearce, best known for creating the British TV Series No Heroics. In that series, superheroes meet in a bar where no uniforms or powers are allowed. Pearce has also apparently turned in a script for the adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan’s brilliant Runaways comic series, so he apparently has a grasp on the superheroes with snarky attitudes genre.

Still, is having a separate writer a good or bad omen for Shane Black’s involvement in the series? Here’s a guy who was known for his writing in the late 80s and 90s, virtually rebooting action films as we know them with Lethal Weapon, and even redefining Robert Downey, Jr.’s career with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. But take the writer out of the creator equation, and what do we have? Could be good (remember The Wrestler? Didn’t need Aronofsky’s original hand for that to succeed…) could be terrible. Either way, what Iron Man needs, more than any other comic book movie, is a creative overhaul on the filmmaking side. They’re not trying to rush it out before the Avengers movie, so that could work in its’ favor actually. Iron Man 2 was hindered by the lack of a script and an agenda by Marvel execs that was not made clear to Favreau until immediately before filming began. By giving part 3 over to someone like Shane Black, who’s style is a better fit for RDJ, the world of Iron Man changes a few varying degrees and becomes a larger part of the action genre, which is where it belongs.

Thoughts? Difficulties with either of the above scenarios?

You are dismissed!

Sgt. Angle

Got a good one for you this week. In 1966, Thomas Pynchon wrote The Crying of Lot 49, which TIME magazine included in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. It’s a dense read, even though it has barely more than 150 pages. A “Lot” is an item in an auction that can be bid on, and the “crying” of a lot is the process the auctioneer takes to take bids.

The story begins with the heroine, Oedipa Maas, being named executor in the will of an ex-lover named Pierce Inverarity. Right off, you can see Pynchon playing with names and punning off them to play with themes. For instance, “arity” is a noun meaning the number of arguments a function can take; in logic it determines the number of inferences deducted from a fact. Inverarity is a Scottish name meaning “creek of arity”. “Inver” could also be a pun on infer. So Pierce Inverarity could be a pun meaning the piercing of the number of inferences deducted from a fact.
So what, you may ask, would be the significance of a name like Pierce Inverarity?

Oedipa’s execution of the will mingles in strange ways with the possible existence of an underground postal service. Pynchon mingles fact with fiction, and readers interested in deepening their understanding of the novel find that Pynchon packs quite a large number of facts into his short book.

The underground postal service in question is called W.A.S.T.E., an acronym for We Await Silent Tristero’s Empire. Thurn und Taxis is a royal German family that in the 16th Century held what appeared to be a monopoly on the postal system in Europe. The Trystero organization was a (fictional?) rival postal service that was forced underground after losing to the monopoly of a government run postal system. In the novel, W.A.S.T.E.‘s symbol was a crude drawing of the Thurn und Taxis postal horn with a mute in the end.

In The Crying of Lot 49 Pynchon plays with the idea that maybe people need conspiracies to fill the vacuum left by uncertainy. As Voltaire said, “If God didn’t exist man would have created him.” As such, the book is not about revealing the conspiracy. It’s about unfolding it slowly in front of us, teasing us with the idea, much as Oedipa is teased and tortured with the idea and wondering if she’ll ever know the truth.

The novel has left its mark on our culture in interesting, if not subtle, ways. For instance, Radiohead’s merchandise store is titled w.a.s.t.e. The muted post horn continues to show up in various places. In Santa Barbara in 2007, vandals tagged the University of California campus and other places in the area with the symbol.
It’s a fun, intriguing read. Go out and take a look; you might start to find the muted post horn in random places as well. Try not to let it bother you…

Until next time,
Still paddin’ the old knew…
_-Akatzen-_

At ease.

The big movie news this week is not that Gary Oldman failed to extract the ending to The Dark Knight Rises from Christopher Nolan’s head, or that Edgar Wright came away with the award for Best Comedy Director — Film for Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World at the first Comedy Awards.

No no, soldiers, the story of the week is that Amy Adams, the wonderful perky, pretty, and thrice Oscar-nominated actress, has been cast in the role of Lois Lane in Zack Snyder’s SuckerPunch Superman: Man of Steel (rumored title).

Now, I’m not the biggest SuperGeek on the planet, but I for one wholly support this casting. Not only is Amy Adams young and perky and brilliant with dark emotion and a sense of humor, but as she showed us in The Fighter she can come off abrasive and strong without “kicking ass.” Lois Lane, in my few experiences, represents the kind of woman that’s head-strong yet vulnerable because of her dedicated curiosity and need to report the truth. She should be played by someone just out of their twenties, not “beautiful” but just a touch above pretty, smart yet flighty in social situations. Most of all, she should be a red-head, because the hair truly makes the woman.

Of course, I’m only joking about that last part, but that’s the kind of superficial attitude needs to be avoided here. There’s nothing that’s wrong with Amy Adams’ appearance, as you can see here:

And hey, there’s always hair-dye. But she’s a strong actress who hasn’t performed badly in a bad movie yet, to my knowledge, so her presence, along with Kevin Costner, certainly adds some artistic merit to the Superman project, something much-needed in light of Snyder’s critically panned Sucker Punch.

Adams and the always graceful Diane Lane will make Superman truly a rock hard man (of steel).

The latest on other Superman rumors include: Viggo Mortenson will NOT be in the movie. Michael Shannon and Edgar Ramirez are being considered, but for which roles it remains unclear.

Oh, and just this morning tidbit dropped from WB Executive Jeff Robinov to the LA Times: “He’s then aiming to release new “Batman” and “Superman” films in 2012 and “Justice League,” a teaming of DC’s top heroes, in 2013.” Batman and Superman we already know of as Chris Nolan and Zack Snyder’s, respectively, but Justice League? While the original attempt died a few years back, a new revival of the younger DC favorites might be coming to us just in time. When the current Batman trilogy finishes up, instead of brand new reboots and adventures, we delve into a younger version, thus justifying any continuity changes.

Your thoughts?

Until next time, when I’m sure another 600 Dark Knight Rises rumors will…rise…you are dismissed!

Sgt. Angle