The Rites of Mars

I finally watched Ironman last night. It is odd because during my pilgrimage to NYC in 2008, Ironman was all over everything. I just wasn't into some military-industrial complex fantasy back then. Not that I am now, but it's allegory - all gory - anyway. I thought it was cool that Jeff Bridges signed on. Hell, if the Big Lebowski liked it...

Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane:
Stark's business second-in-command. Bridges read the comics as a boy and liked Favreau's modern, realistic approach. He shaved his head and grew a gray beard for the role, which was something he had wanted to do for some time. Bridges googled the Book of Obadiah, and he was surprised to learn retribution is a major theme in that particular book of the Bible, something which Stane represents. ~wikipedia

The "Jericho weapon" is some kind of total ego killing machine, that destroys even the will of the enemy to fight, faced with such overpowering might.

Safely escaping the city, the two returned to Joshua and reported that the "whole land was melting with fear." ~the spies

On the seventh day they were to march around the city seven times and the priests were to blow their ram's horns. And Joshua ordered the people to shout. The walls of the city collapsed, and the Israelites were able to charge straight into the city. The city was completely destroyed, and every man, woman, child and animal in it was killed by Joshua's army as an offering to God. Only Rahab and her family were spared, because she had hidden the two spies sent by Joshua. ~wikipedia

Stark gives a demo of his new weapon in the holy land, and is conducted through an ego-death experience at the hands of terrorists or the 10 Rings. I'm a bit disappointed that they weren't the 7 Rings but whatever, I can't expect Hollywood to be spot on with the symbolism.

Through his ordeal he is helped by Yinsen, who saved his life by creating a magnetic "solar symbol" thing. He is Tony's shamanic guide, or "Jesus" figure. He gives him a new, indestructible heart, but dies at the end of his duty, it was what he wanted, anyway.

Yinsen helps Stark create a new iron skin, or ego. Something not so easily destroyed, because it is powered, at its core, not by ego, but by Id.

This oddly parallels my own ego-death journey, which was initiated by shaman and mushroom eater Jeff Fairhall, who died shortly after my own ego-death.

Tony Stark returns to America (EgoLand) a changed man, and decides that Stark Industries will no longer make weapons, and gets the typical media response.

Well, not exactly. Stark Industries continues to manufacture weapons, but for a different cause. Like Jericho, Stark has been conquered by Id, and now flies a different flag. Much to the chagrin of Moses, er... Obadiah.

I've learned to love Gwyneth Paltrow, she plays "the Grail" so well. As Pepper Potts, she's sexy, smart and moral, and if you want to woo her, you'd better appreciate all her qualities. We note that Tony never appreciates her until after his ego-death experience.

In the end, Tony changes his suit to Mars red, and admits that he IS a super hero, despite his many documented character deficiencies. In other words, his many sins are of no consequence, and he has been born again - saved by the blood of the lamb.

Finding Pneuma

I'm reading The Mediterranean Caper, 1972, by Clive Cussler - one of those old paperbacks you find at beach cabins. Dirk Pitt and his merry band of oceanographers is a guilty pleasure, I guess I always liked the idea of a hunky all-male crew out saving the oceans and the world. Apparently, so do erotic comic artists Patrick Fillion and Jacob Mott, who have created the gay version of Dirk Pitt: Mako Finn!

MAKO FINN was born of Patrick Fillion’s love of the ocean and appreciation of the life that resides beneath the waves – especially Sharks. A sexy hero with an ecological slant, Mako is the champion of the Seas, sworn to protect the ocean at all costs.

Hey, I ALSO love the oceans, sea life, and even sharks, especially after going down the Shark God of Molokai rabbit hole a few years ago. Of course, I figure that any true eco-warrior would be labeled an eco-terrorist soon enough by the PTB, which would lend a swash-buckling, piratical flavor to the operation - a queer Captain Nemo!

Even though Dirk Pitt and Mako Finn are both handsome and daring defenders of the seas, there is one rather huge difference between them. This is a steamy sex scene from The Mediterranean Caper:

He lifted her in his arms and kissed her. Her lips were warm and moist.
"When was the last time had a man?" he whispered. "Not since..." Her voice trailed away.
Pitt took her as the long shadows of the rocks crept upward over the beach, shielding their bodies from the sun. A flight of sandpipers circled overhead and descended upon the damp sand at the water's edge. They scurried back and forth, playing tag with the surf. Every so often one of the birds would cast a beady eye at the two lovers in the shade, staring for a fleeting instant before returning to the chore of stabbing its long curved beak in the sand for food.

Wait.... what? This, on the other hand, is a sex scene from Mako Finn:

NOTES:

Jules Verne was very likely gay, so it may well be that Captain Nemo is a subconscious queer character from the get go.

Mako Finn's organization is the Oceanic Research & Conservation Agency, or ORCA. Orca whales, sometimes called "killer whales", are the top predator of the seas (behind man). Being enormous and clever black and white creatures with many sharp teeth, they symbolize inescapable justice, much like Moby Dick and Kauhuhu, the Hawaiian Shark God.

Dirk Pitt's organization is the National Underwater Marine Agency, or NUMA. Pneuma (πνεύμα) is an ancient Greek word for "breath," and in a religious context for "spirit" or "soul."

The "connate pneuma" of Aristotle is the warm mobile "air" that in the sperm transmits the capacity for locomotion and certain sensations to the offspring. These movements derive from the soul of the parent and are embodied by the pneuma as a material substance in semen.

"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit (pneuma), he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." ~John 3:5

iPhone 5 Home

Today. Sept 12, is iPhone 5 day - the unveiling of the phone that is supposed to save the nation. This is a curious sync because I watched Captain America - The First Avenger, the evening of 9/11. I hadn't planned it, just discovered it was available on Netflix.

It's curious because Captain America is also the savior of the nation, and he's all about the five pointed star - the pentagram. I call him the masculine Columbia. Here he is, first using the door/gate of a Lucky Star cab as a shield.

The Lucky Star Gate

I've been carrying around 5 copper pennies in my pocket lately, mostly because I keep seeing a copper colored Honda Element stalking me, and I know this makes me crazy, but because of the JC Penney's in the background of the Twin Pines Mall in Back to the Future. The Honda Element represents The Fifth Element. Maybe the iPhone 5 represents a better connection? I mean, Jobs was Moses, right? He's all about "text messaging God".

The cosmic cube book mobile

I had to borrow some cash from Varen for lunch, he gave me a $5 bill, and a) Lincoln is on the penny and the $5 and b) he was the savior of the nation.

Peggy Sue, I love you

Captain America (Steve Rogers) is a gene-spliced super soldier from WWII, while his arch-nemesis is Red Skull (Johann Schmidt), a gene-spliced super Nazi (Not-See). (Red Skull played by Hugo Weaving, another spider sync.) They battle it out and even though Schmidt is more intelligent and ruthless, Cap has a secret weapon - Peggy Carter. Peggy is the dark-haired girl who has faith in him, and I know this is a stretch but she is also represented by the Cosmic Cube that Red Skull covets.

Joe Johnston directed Captain America and The Rocketeer, they are almost the same movie. The cosmic cube is the rocket pack, Jenny is Peggy, and all of them are the Fifth Element - the aether, or Quintessence. The Nazis understand the power of the subconscious, but they don't want a relationship - they just want control.

The United States, at least before it was completely taken over by paper clipped Nazis, represented a divine union between ego and Id, often called the alchemical wedding - E pluribus unum. That's why Joe has Steve Rogers busting through a bridal shop, dressed in white, right after his transformation - he becomes "The Bride of Christ".

This is MY wedding, bitch!

Perhaps Captain America isn't so much gene-spliced as Jean spliced.

What, are we spinning webs again?

I imagine that Joe is perfectly conscious of all the symbolism in his films, though it is entirely possible that he's not. It's the little things, like that "Audrey's Bridal Wear" shot, and the fact that the first shield is a red star, that makes me wonder if Joe isn't a secret patriot.

"The Nazis took over their own country first." ~Dr. Abraham Erskine

Put that into your Jungian pipe and smoke it.

World Cup Material

No cup can hold that!

This little gem is scanned from a much beloved book of sex comics - "Oh Boy" by Brad Parker, published 1988. Oh means O. The O boys. Brad had a serious California boy fetish (being a midwestern lad who finally made his trip to gay mecca). The book has a little intro/bio written by his friend and mentor, Jay Wetteland. It starts with: “In the beginning, Brad Parker masturbated to the images of dinosaurs. He later discovered men.” Brad’s erotic comics are full of sci-fi and aliens (very hunky aliens) wolves, leopards, faeries, and even star gates - gates opened by the power of pure, unashamed, man on man eroticism. In other words, a prophet! I’ll be scanning more of his work, as time permits.

Brad has painted art for Hollywood, Marvel and DC comics, including the graphic novel Green Lantern: Fear Itself. It’s a story about the three incarnations (avatars) of Green Lantern, and how they each had to face their greatest fear (butt sex, IMHO, but that's just Horus talking). We’ll note that Green Lantern is garbed in Osiris black and green, and he carries a magical ring of power. This ring is symbolized as the 101, or the guardians of the hole (divine feminine). See the Double H Ranch for more than you ever wanted to know about that.

Brad finally made his way to paradise, where he paints as “Tiki Shark” - giving the ancient Polynesian Gods his own unique spin. Considering his life and times, it is remarkable that Brad is still with us, thank Kauhuhu.

 “When you live on an active volcano, you learn to make sacrifices."

My Gods Wear Spandex

Gay Parties in New York Attract the Superhero Crowd

This is Skin Tight U.S.A., the occasional costume-fetish party held at the Stonewall Inn in the West Village, which draws a regular group of men (and their admirers) who enjoy a special kind of dress-up. Some wear heroic outfits; some, wrestling gear. The crowd can range from 25 people on an average night to 250 on a spectacular one. The common thread is that the muscle-cuddling garb often leaves little to the imagination.

“I was always attracted to the superhero physique,” said Matthew Levine, 31, who helped found the party in 2005 with Andrew Owen, 44, and who was one of the few participants willing to be named. The two become friends as, respectively, the graphic designer and Webmaster for Hard Comixxx, a predecessor of Skin Tight, once held at the Eagle bar in Chelsea. Mr. Levine is a big fan of the X-Men (who have a handful of gay characters) and the Transformers (all of whom seem straight) and has been reading comics since he was 8. “As I got older,” he said, “I realized, ‘Oh, this is why I admire the Grecian ideal of manhood and musculature.’ ”

With apologies to Chris Knowles, author of "Our Gods Wear Spandex", and the Secret Sun.

The Greatest American Hero

I've been reading a delightful series of stories on the Evolution forum - The Summer of 1981, by Padraig. The story takes place on an idyllic island in Puget Sound (close to home), and since it is set in the summer of '81, it includes songs and TV shows from the era, including this one:

The Greatest American Hero starred William Katt (the classic California boy), Connie Sellecca (New Jersey all the way), and Robert Culp, the eternal secret agent. Katt auditioned for the role of Luke Skywalker in 1977.

I had forgotten that our red-suited hero got his powers from a UFO. The ship looks a lot like a ring, or perhaps a crown?

The symbol on Ralph's uniform resembles the Chinese character "center" [中]. As the symbol is red in color, Hong Kong television station TVB called the Cantonese-dubbed version of the show [飛天紅中俠], translated to mean "Flying Red Center Hero". It also resembles a winged creature, perhaps a butterfly.

Katt briefly appeared in Heroes season 3, "The Butterfly Effect".

Butterflies are also symbolic of "Monarch" mind control, homos, transformation, and Anteros, the "twin" brother of Eros, who is also a prominent symbol of London.

The theme song "Believe It or Not" was more popular than the show, reaching No. 2 in Billboards Top 40 list on August 15, and 22. It's been parodied many times, perhaps most famously by Michael Moore in Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore used it to underscore the famous scene where President George W. Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq.

This Youtube fan video is 1:44 minutes long, and was uploaded by "Borgqueen", who is 22 years old - from Oztralia. That butterfly be seriously flappin' her wings.

The Jeremiah Ring Tone

Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken. (Jeremiah 6:10-17)

I swear, my ears are ringing. This is the week of the horn. It started with the Forty Years in the Desert post and finding the image of Joshua (playing the Destroyer) bringing down the walls of Jericho. Meanwhile, Thuth re-emerges from hyperspace - blowing a horn, and even Black Dog Star is all over trumpets, horns, and the mighty wind created by the... blowing of noses?!

Last week I was treated to the sight and sound of a majestic flock of Canadian geese flying overhead, honking away, and for some reason I thought of swans... trumpeter swans.

Swans are actually huge and FIERCE beasts that will intentionally scare the shit out of you in your little canoe. I was attacked by an angry swan once, it almost got my paddle. They are also fantastically gorgeous birds, and I suspect every gay boy's favorite bedtime story was The Ugly Duckling. And there's always the divine Miss Swan:

Swans symbolize cleanliness and beauty, hence Miss Swan's beauty salon, and closer to home, the Kirkland White Swan Car Wash. The beauty is physical, but the symbol is often used to imply sanctity, moral purity and righteousness. I think it's hilarious that Oz has black swans?

Anyway, yesterday Var brings home a bottle of SWAN brand hydrogen peroxide to clean the water cooler, and I stood there for a moment staring at the bottle...

The hydrogen "crop circle" glyph is the symbol found on the forehead of Dr. Manhattan, of the Watchmen.

You can pretty much sum up the book of Jeremiah with this tagline:

In Egyptian mythology, Anubis weighs (judges) the hearts of the dead against the weight of a feather. The feather is a symbol of something extremely light, much like the hydrogen atom.

Update 6/4/09: Varen bought a cooking pot online which came today, and he quickly named it "Horatio". (He names inanimate objects all the time, I have no idea why) Which takes me straight to Horatio Hornblower!

Captain Hornblower was played by Welsh dreamboat Ioan Gruffudd in the BBC television series. Ioan deserves a synchronistic post of his own one day.

Notes:

Today is 06.03.09, synching with the poster above. It's also the hottest June 3rd on record here in Kirkland.

Every Hero Has a Beginning...

Ooh, my favorite gay super hero lets it all hang out! The Naked Justice origins story - from the tombs of ancient Egypt to post war Great Britain! Our red headed hero with the "lighting rod" meets his first challenge - an invasion of twin-dicked men from Mars! From Class Comics.

Postscript: my horny, lavender-hued avatar is from the fertile crescent of CC.

The Lion's Gate

About a week ago I was taking a ferry from West Seattle to Southworth. It was a beautiful day and I even saw a (rare) sailing catamaran from the ferry, but the most interesting thing was an unusual pattern of airplane condensation trails in the sky, which looked like this:

I realized that if you connected the ends, they would form a hexagon. The other interesting thing was that a family was feeding the seagulls from the starboard bow of the ferry, and they (the gulls) were crying and wheeling about, being the piratical little scavengers that they are. Seagulls have a special place in my heart, because for one they are beautiful in flight, but a long time ago Var and I decided that the ferryboat was the god of seagulls. They would accompany the boat on its passage from one side to the other, flying ahead and flanking it, and it almost seemed like they were heralds or guardians or something. So anyway, I was watching the family, silently disapproving of them feeding the birds sugary cereal snacks, and guess what they were feeding the gulls? Crispy Hexagons.

Note Lion logo in the upper left. Click to enlarge.

All righty then. A few days later, Var and I had to go into Seattle to cash a check at this bank:

Do we see a hexagon theme developing here? The HSBC (Honk Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) logo is also a red and white bow-tie, signifying Orion. The bank is on the 23rd floor of One Union Square (2323 is the address, actually), you have to buzz to even get in the door. Upon entering, you are immediately confronted by a lovely bas-relief of the Crest of the House of Windsor. Lion on the left, Unicorn on the right, complete with Dieu et mon droit. Wouldn't you know it, we parked directly across the street from the Red Lion Hotel. And oh yea, the Lion King is in town, with giant lion banners everywhere, proclaiming "Now is the time!"

Is that a red BOW in your hair?

HSBC Holdings plc is a public limited company incorporated in England and Wales, headquartered in London. As of 2008, it is both the world's largest banking group and the world's largest company according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine.

OK, we are in a tentacle of the belly of the Beast, Suite 2323. Trying to cash a check. I'm practically hyperventilating!

Cashing a check takes a good while (since we are not customers), so I sit and look at their view, which faces south and features a fabulous shot of the Art Deco Amazon.com corporate headquarters on Beacon Hill. This building (a former hospital) is literally a pink version of Emerald City, and wouldn't you know it, Seattle calls itself the Emerald City. Oz had a lion (who was about as gay as it gets) and strangely, I played the Cowardly Lion in a high school play.

Synching around to this provocative gem (by Mike Jacobsen) snagged from Conspiracy Grimoire. The Lion realizes he can't get courage from Dorothy because she lacks the organs with which courage is associated. He'll have to grow a pair himself.

Now we go into gay land (somewhere over the rainbow... flag), because my MOST favorite homoerotic writer (PosingStrap) would occasionally describe his characters as... "Amazons", which I thought was really strange. As we all know, Amazons are the fierce female warriors of ancient Turkey, who chose to create a society free from male influence. Wonder Woman is an Amazon, and yes, she sports a RED STAR on her crown.

But Posingstrap is describing men: MALE Amazons? Perhaps male Amazons are men who choose to create a society free from the influence of women? Isn't that a Spartan? And bottom line, isn't that what a gay bar is? At least, some of them. Seattle had a bar called The Cuff which when it opened was an oasis of masculinity. No drag queens, trannys or fag hags. Blue and white collar guys, black and white, all mixed in a testosterone and stale beer laden fog. But one night I was there and I saw that someone had invited their girl friends in, and I was actually kinda pissed, like these women were defiling our little temple! Which, I am quick to point out, is NOT hatred of women, OK? It's just... female energy takes the edge off, and edging is what it's all ABOUT in a gay bar.

The Amazons couldn't reproduce, so one day a year they invited neighboring men in for sex (and men being men, they always accepted the invite). Gay men can't reproduce, which begs the question, why ARE there gay bars at ALL since gayness should have been the first thing on Gaia's list of "undesirable genetic traits"? There are many scientific apologists out there for the "gay gene", but somehow, they ring a bit hollow to me. The unfathomable success of homo-ness leads conspiracy-minded Christians to suppose that there MUST be some secret gay recruitment agenda. Which on a 5 sense, conscious level is laughable. But I have new theory, which is that queerness is part of the "invasion". On some pre-programmed, unconscious, Idsquid, genetic level, homosexuality IS on the agenda, and despite the numerous attempts at wiping us out, the Amazon/Spartans make headway. I think that perhaps... homosexuality IS the Trojan Horse.

The Lionfish Invasion.

Fun Fact: This is the species of fish in Captain Picard's ready room on Star Trek: TNG. Its name is "Livingston". (as in seagull, I presume).

I Heart the Monster (revised)

I posted an article about the Toxic Avenger a few days ago, but I withdrew it because I realized it was like, synchro raving! So here's a second attempt, with more right brain respect.

I finally watched The Toxic Avenger, "the first super hero from New Jersey!" A 1985 dud that became a midnight movie cult hit. The movie struck me because of it's themes of good and evil and our perceptions of it. The criminals are physically gorgeous, while the hero is a deformed monster, and the only one who sees the hero as a HERO, is a blind woman (and total babe). It's a fabulous morality play, and I enjoyed it immensely.

Plot: Melvin Ferd is a stereotypical 98-pound weakling dork. He works as a janitor at a health club in the town of Tromaville, which is the "Toxic Waste Capitol" of the nation. The corrupt (and corpulent) Mayor Belgoody is also head of the local crime syndicate, which probably describes most towns a little too well.

Melvin is constantly harassed by the health club patrons, His mere EXISTENCE being an affront. The pranks grow meaner and more violent until he's tricked/seduced into wearing a pink tutu and kissing a sheep, with the entire club witnessing his humiliation and emasculation. A ritual castration? He is then chased around the health club by the mob where he eventually leaps from a second story window - landing in a drum of toxic waste. He THEN spontaneously combusts and runs down the street screaming!? And that's the last the wicked clubbers see of Melvin, or so they think.

Unfortunately for them, Melvin is transformed into a hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength, who has a single-minded desire to "clean up" Tromaville (trauma town?). He is much like the Hulk, a creature who descends/ascends into a state of unstoppable rage when confronted with injustice. The 'Berserker'. I believe he represents the Id:

"But the Krell forgot one thing - Monsters John! Monsters from the id!" --Forbidden Planet

Much like the Batman, 'Toxie' has taken on the form of the villain's worst nightmare, which he literally IS - the concretization of their subconscious guilt. The criminal elite of Tromaville have grown fat off poisoning the town, and it's brilliant that the vehicle of their destruction is born from the FRUIT of their OWN wickedness. Karma Smackdown!

The innocent are frightened by Toxie at first, but they soon realize they have nothing to fear from the hideous creature. It only attacks "bad people", as a scientist empirically demonstrates. Toxie (like Santa) "knows" who has been bad or good, because he is the subconscious Id, the Mind that lives within ALL minds. The Monster knows where ALL the bodies are buried.

By the end of the movie, the townspeople realize that the hideous monster is their true Savior, and they come to his rescue at the big stand-off, creating a human shield of protection around him, wearing "I heart the Monster" t-shirts. It was so dorky and so cute and so FIERCE - I may have shed a tear.

The film is notable for it's homophobic attitude - many of the real monsters are outrageous gay stereotypes - and it reminds me how far we've come since 1985. Varen and I are a legal couple now, with (most) of the same rights as straight people. The Gay Monster has been civilized, and that's honestly something I could never have imagined back when I came out in 1982.

In the 'Life Imitates Art' category, I blogged over a year ago (see The Good Shepherd) about a school in Nova Scotia who's student body (thanks to the inspired organizing of two boys) donned pink t-shirts in solidarity with a boy who was bullied and called a faggot because he wore a pink shirt to school. They formed a human shield, and they did it by wearing the equivalent of an 'I Heart the Faggot' t-shirt.

As I'm writing this, the Palestinians are undergoing another bashing from the Israelis, this one worst than the last, but better than the next. Bullies ALWAYS escalate the torment. I'm thinking, ya know, the only reason gay people have a legal RIGHT to the Pursuit of Happiness is because enough straight people somehow saw themselves in this struggle, and even though Prop 8 succeeded in California, honestly, I think that's just a blip - the trend is gay friendly.

Gay people have reached, if not THE Promised Land, at least a meaningful plateau. A place to spread our tents. And I feel like it's time to return the favor. Gay Porn for Palestine? Gay Band-Aid? I heart Palestine!

NOTES:

My most memorable personal episode of gay bashing was actually one of total victory. I had just come out and my hot new boyfriend and I were making out on the hood of my car late one summer night in the parking lot of of a notorious gay bar, and some guy started harassing us because we were doing that. So we stood up, and he quickly realized that he'd chosen to pick on guys bigger and stronger than he was. We fucking CHASED him around the parking lot, cornered him, and told him what a JERK he was to his face, and he had to take it. Beaten by FAGGOTS!!

How can you not love the Monster!? Chris Rockway via Unnatural Devotions

Sol Food

I read some fascinating homoerotic superhero fantasy fiction last week: 'The New Supermen', by Absman420. Until now I've avoided it because of the title. Superman slash fiction is about as retread as it gets, and isn't it taboo for someone of German descent to dream about being a Superman? Despite my misgivings it was a great imagining of what it might be like to be a gay solar-powered super hero - as well as letting me get in touch with my inner Nietzsche.

The plot revolves around Superman deciding to leave earth for a while, "seeking answers to questions", so he creates a formula that turns ordinary Terrans into solar Supermen by sending them into his Super Tanning Bed! It's hilarious and wise all at the same time and it's one of the things I love about Absman's stories.

Secret Synch Confession: I jerked off once in a tanning bed.

One of the things Absman examines is the concept that Superman is "good" simply because he is Superman, and how that goodness manifests in the Terrans. The reason Superman is good is that he gets his solar energy directly from the source, no middleman. Everyone is technically solar powered, except the solar energy is sent first through plants and animals and then to our bodies via food. Which opens us up to corruption from all sides because we all have to eat, and the builders of civilization figured out a long time ago that he who controls the grain controls the nation. Anarchy 101.

Farming was the germ of civilization, and remember that Cain was a farmer. As was Pharaoh, and Monsanto, and Prince Charles. All in the family?

I imagine who might be put out of "work" if suddenly we all got our food direct from the Sun/Son...

Revision 12/16: I changed the title from Superfood to Sol Food.