Dec 27, 2007

Eye on the Tiger

Tigers are on the loose this week - three separate boxing day stories - all involving tigers.

San Francisco Police probe fatal zoo attack.

Sri Lanka military says 40 Tigers killed in sea battle.

Thailand Could Host 2000 Wild Tigers.

The Eye of the Tiger

Eye of the Tiger: a song performed by the American rock group Survivor . It was released on January 1, 1982, and was written at the request of Sylvester Stallone for the film Rocky III. More boxing.

Eye of the Tiger (film) 1986: Buck Matthews (played by Gary Busey), a former Vietnam veteran, returns to his old hometown and finds the place has since been a target of a motorcycle gang. Shortly after, the bikers murder his wife and traumatize his daughter. Buck has a problem; his parole officer is also the sheriff of the town and is in league with the bikers. Buck seeks the help of a drug lord, a prisonmate, and an old friend, J.B. Deveraux (played by Yaphet Kotto), who was also a veteran. They vow to eradicate the gang.

Another revenge driven gore-fest, which seems to be the theme for the season, see Battle of the Titans.

India (and Pakistan) is the fabled land of the tigers, and today, Benazir Bhutto, Oxford educated pussycat of the elite, was killed in an attack remarkable (even in this day and age) for its deadly violence.

Benazir Bhutto, 54, Lived in Eye of (the tiger) Pakistan Storm. NYT obituary.

“Play as cornered tigers”

The 1992 Cricket World Cup in Australia & New Zealand marked Pakistan's first World Cup victory. It is remembered for the comeback Pakistan made after losing key players such as Waqar Younis and Saeed Anwar, and being led by an injured captain in Imran Khan. Pakistan lost 4 of their first 5 matches and were nearly eliminated in the first round of the tournament after being bowled out for 74 against England, until the match was declared as a "no result" due to rain. Captain Imran Khan famously told the team to play as "cornered tigers", after which Pakistan won five successive matches, including, most famously, the semi-final against hosts New Zealand and the final against England.

The tiger finally beats the lion at his own game.

India and Pakistan have long suffered under British rule. The East India Company "found India rich and left it poor," says author Nick Robin. Though England no longer rules the colonies by name, it still wields power via corporate/banking proxy, the instruments of occult global empire. Interestingly, the 1899 Chinese (Also called a tiger) peasant revolt against the corrupting influence of empire was called the Boxer Rebellion.

Interpreting the media tea leaves to see vengeful tigers on the loose says more about my own feelings of political impotence than I really care to admit, and though I might wish for bloody justice, I’m cautioned by the words of another English educated Indian:

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. --Mahatma Gandhi

6 comments:

JB said...

As the film "Eye of the Tiger" shows, when you're in trouble and you gotta take down the "Man", some guy named JB (Deveraux) is all-ways there to help lol

aferrismoon said...

Imran Khan married Jemima Goldsmith , daughter of tycoon Sir James Goldsmith - forcefully anti-european union. Closed down a few factories in the US too.
My Great-great-grandfather , Harman Jupp,played for Surrey Club when the Aboriginal team toured in England [ a fact that the Australian Cricket Board ignored for 120 years] in the first match in 1868.
The Aboriginals took or were given names as their birth names were very long. One was called Booniberang , changed to Tiger

Unknown said...

Weird, the post I was commenting on disappeared. Adam Star Two-In-One:

This is for "The Ugliest Grail":

Michael, thanks for the plug. Loving the Austin Powers as Dionysus. Of course! "Do I make you horny?" is probably the most apt Taurian Dionysian phrase imaginable. Austin typically appears clad in wine colored velvet, or blue (for the blue apples/grapes?). Then, check this out, his nemesis/alter-ego/brother is one of those illuminated Doctors I haven't gotten to yet, Doctor Evil. Their conflict is pure Apollo/Dionysus.

btw, your writing is very strong.

This then on "Eye on the Tiger":

Big, patterned, dangerous cat, certainly another Dionysus symbol. I was reminded today of the 1983 Duran duran album "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" which includes "The Union of the Snake", "The Reflex" and "New Moon On Monday". Pretty evocative song titles actually. The album title seems to me a reference to Saturn (seven) and Dionysus (the Tiger, doubly so as it is ragged, a sign of the irrational). The album also has a song titles "Tiger Tiger", a reference to the great Blake poem, The Tiger:

"Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"

A Dionysian ode?

The tiger attack, I feel sorry for the victim of course, but no matter what happened there, we humans pay a price for enslaving animals that are more evolved then we are. Just ask Sigfried and/or Roy.

Unknown said...

oh good it came back.

Michael said...

FM - Thanks for the background. Lots of Kahn references lately, Jake mentions some at The Blob. The wrath of Kahn?

Adam - I'm replying to your Ugliest Grail comment in the Ugliest Grail. I like a tidy blog. Duran Duran - probably worth a post all on their own, except I can't stand Simon Le Bon's whine for a voice. His name reminds me of King Philip Le Bon - scourge of the Templars.

Sigfried and Roy - German Homo Las Vegas Tiger Tamers - that's a trip. ;-)

Devin said...

reading this post i was struck yet again by a sense of unreality with regard to time and maybe my whole life? -perhaps the whole worlds 'life'?
It almost seems like it could either have been a century ago--or yesterday that that song was released (if that makes any frikkin sense whatsoever:-)
but Benazir Bhutto leaving this mortal coil does seem like only yesterday to me!!

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