Sand Storm

Happy Halloween, everyone! They say that the veil between the mortal and the spirit worlds is particularly thin on Samhein, or All Hollow's Eve. It is the realm of the dark recesses of our subconscious, the one day when we are all encouraged to dress up as our subconscious desires. This is THE queer holiday, of course.

This Halloween was marked by Hurricane Sandy striking at Gotham, and we're all quoting 'The Dark Knight Rises':

There's a storm coming, Mr. Wayne. You and your friends better batten down the hatches, because when it hits, you're all gonna wonder how you ever thought you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us.

Curiously, the homoerotic comics house Class Comics published "Sandstorm" on October 9, syncing Sandy to Set, the Egyptian god of the desert and storms. This is important because Set murdered Osiris, thus causing the "sun" to set.

Osiris = Consciousness, Set = Subconscious.



Mr. Sandman, the dreaming mind.

I was fascinated that in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, the Overlook Hotel is taken over by Jack Torrence on or about Halloween (via KD12). We all know that Jack Nicholson is always playing "the devil", so quite clearly, the USA has been taken over by the subconscious, the "sand storm" being the signifier.

Oddly enough, I don't see this as a negative, but as an opportunity. If it's true that the subconscious writes our reality into being, then we might consider this a "writer's strike".

Let's give Jack a break. The devil only knows what he might cook up.

Smashing Pumpkins

Halloween is the essential gay holiday. I think its because of the dress up thing - every queen is an Actress at heart, and a role is a role, no matter how small. Halloween parties are fun because everyone there is playing an archetype. Which IMHO is what everyone is doing 24/7 ANYWAY, but at a Halloween party it's all right out in the open! Thinking back over a few of my more memorable costumes, I've been an alien robot as a child, a bee, a soldier in high heels (my feet swore "Never again!") One year a friend and I went as Mummies (you know, sexy mummies...) He was a recovering Mormon, so we were some crazy Egyptian/Aztec duo, or something.

Thanks to the House of Vader, (which is doing one Halloween post a day 'til the Great Pumpkin Day), I watched Disney's version of the Hudson River classic: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It's a tale of two men in competition for a wealthy and beautiful woman - in other words - the story of Troy and the War of Heaven all over again. This little coquet is named Katrina, and her charms sweep like a hurricane through tiny Sleepy Hollow, devastating every male. The competition eventually thins to two suiters - Ichabod Crane, the physically awkward but socially elegant schoolteacher, and Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, his polar opposite.

You might say that Ichabod represents the lofty head of science, learning, social graces and artistic skill (the left brain), while Brom represents the head down under - the swaggering rogue with bone (the right brain). We know from the very start of this competition that Katrina has already chosen Brom, but she uses Ichabod as a foil - to make Brom prove his love. Brom devises a plan (uses his head) to scare the shit out of Ichabod, appearing as the headless horseman. Brom lures Ichabod into his realm - the right brain, with a frightening ghost story. Ichabod, being easily frightened (as the left, ego-centric brain always is) soon finds himself mired in the dream-like dark forest of Imagination Land, where everything symbolizes something else.

It is there that Ichabod meets the headless horseman, holding a flaming pumpkin aloft for a head! He chases the schoolmaster, threatening him with a great sword, desiring his decapitation! Ichabod (ego) flees, and as he crosses the bridge (the Corpus Callosum, Rainbow Bridge, Stargate etc.) to left brain safety - where the headless horseman cannot cross - the flaming pumpkin is hurled across the bridge, straight at Ichabod.

In the morning, Ichabod (the egoic brain) has disappeared, leaving behind a smashed pumpkin on the road. Brom Bones marries Katrina (Grail signifier) and Ichabod is never heard from again.

As a tall and awkwardly skinny teenager, I always identified with Ichabod - I think plenty of gay men do. Yet gay porn is full of Brom Bones, not Ichabods, and I think we see Katrina's side - a hunk is a hunk - and all the art in the Louvre is still a poor substitute. Yet a brute is just a brute, and it seem to me that a civilized brute is what grrrlz really want...

I think gay men are attempting this bridging between heads. I am privileged to follow several gay bloggers who alternate posts of profound intellectual insight with posts of profound turpitude. We're getting our heads together!

Manhattan is a rather excellent metaphor of this bridging - or was. Before the clean up, it was a city brimming with sexual danger and artistic virtuosity - Oscar Wilde in a sling - hot!

Sleepy Hollow is a Dutch (Netherlands) settlement, as was Manhattan. Netherlands = "underland", which is close enough to the land down under to make the point. Amsterdam is also well-known as a sexual "crossroads" - another town of canals (rivers) and bridges.

Men At Work: The Land Down Under

I come from a land down under, Where women glow and men plunder! Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder? You better run, You better take cover!