#horror encyclopedia magazine
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so i read the hp lovecraft short stories that the film ‘re-animator’ was based on (internet archive link) and the answer is yes, the source material is openly and deliberately racist, and it is not coincidental or accidental that the film so clearly recalls the history of american medical schools obtaining human cadavers through various deeply unethical means, esp the bodies of enslaved black people in the south. the lovecraft stories were serialised in the magazine ‘home brew’ in 1921–22 and are neither very long nor very good, but a few points of interest stood out to me:
both wikipedia and the encyclopedia britannica attribute the ‘modern’ zombie largely to george romero’s 1960s films; in ‘the undead eighteenth century’, linda troost suggested only that zombies appeared in literature as early as 1967 and were described as spirits or ghosts, not cannibalistic monsters. however, although lovecraft never uses the word “zombie” in “herbert west—reanimator”, i think it is fair to draw a clear connection from the haitian mythology to his story of reanimated, violent, cannibalistic bodies. because lovecraft was simultaneously satirising and paying tribute to “frankenstein”, the anxieties in the stories centre around the narrator’s discomfort with west’s materialist view of life, his fanatical devotion to scientific experiment, and the idea that living matter is only distinguished by accidents of matter and function, rather than by the operation of a divinely given soul. thus, when the narrator describes the outcomes of his and west’s experiments as “unthinkable automata” (30) we ought to understand this as a relatively early (again, these stories ran between 1921 and 22) example of american literature invoking the haitian zombie to work out a strikingly different set of social anxieties than enslaved africans in haiti did. in lovecraft’s stories, then, the medical students’ literal reanimations of stolen (sometimes murdered) bodies are almost themselves symbolic of lovecraft’s own deployment of the zombie myth, transposed into the context of debates about materialism, vitalism, and the nature of life and consciousness.
speaking of the cannibalism, yes, it is racialised. although the re-animated bodies exist largely out of view of either the narrator or west, and thus we cannot say for sure what they are or aren’t eating, the confirmed act of cannibalism is specifically attributed to a black re-animated man described as “gorilla-like ... [with] a face that conjured up thoughts of unspeakable congo secrets and tom-tom poundings under an eerie moon” (14) and later “a glassy-eyed, ink-black apparition nearly on all fours, covered with bits of mould, leaves, and vines, foul with caked blood” (16–17). this is the scene in which he is discovered eating a white infant: “a snow-white, terrible, cylindrical object terminating in a tiny hand” (17). he is consistently referred to as “cannibalistic” throughout the rest of the story, emphasised to be violent and dangerous. he, along with the other re-animated people, eventually joins a kind of re-animated army led by west’s own former army (wwi) commander, who is now headless (also re-animated); this ‘army’ eventually kills west. thus, west’s body-snatching and literal possession of the stolen bodies are flipped around, as the bodies develop allegiance to one another and then invert west’s violence against them: where he forced them to live again, they directly cause him to die. because this is lovecraft, though, the re-animated bodies existing and developing agency is the central horror of the story, even despite the unflattering portrayal of west; this is actually translated pretty accurately into the film sequel ‘bride of re-animator’ as a scene in which their version of the undead ‘army’ rampages through west’s backyard/cemetery, and we are treated to extensive shots of the bodies writhing, spasming, and seizing, in ways that simultaneously telegraph disability and (what is framed as) terrifying strength.
there are at least flashes throughout the stories of racialisation of the re-animated bodies occurring precisely on the grounds of having been re-animated: for example, of an early (white) re-animation experiment, the narrator reports that it was “like a malformed ape”, and lovecraft writes:
“For it had been a man. This much was clear despite the nauseous eyes, the voiceless simianism, and the daemoniac savagery” (11). thus, the fact of having been re-animated is itself what gives this white body its simian / ape-like qualities—descriptions which are of course racialised in american literature in general, and specifically in this series (see above).
in connection with lovecraft’s racism, the stories frequently engage in generalised physiognomical efforts to read a person’s moral character and personality from their physical appearance. this includes overtly racialised traits (west is described as blond and blue-eyed numerous times, an appearance that hides his "diabolical” machinations and “fanaticism” [7, 18], and contrasts to both his morbid fascinations [3] and to a “brawny young workman” with brown hair whom he re-animates [5]). there is also a link raised multiple times between nervous sensitivity and physical strength: one specimen is “a man at once physically powerful and of such high mentality that a sensitive nervous system was assured”, and west seeks out specifically “men of especially sensitive brain and especially vigorous physique” (25, 27).
although lovecraft’s stories are hardly making any manner of radical critique, they also contain flashes of tacit admission that west’s experiments, although cosmetically off-putting to the medical establishment, are not in fact diverging in deeper ways from ‘normal’ functioning of these institutions. for example, in the first installment, as the narrator and west attempt to secure a supply of fresh corpses from christchurch cemetery, the narrator notes that “we found that the college had first choice in every case” (4), a remark that for the modern reader alludes to the true and extensive history of american medical schools and anthropology departments purchasing or simply snatching cadavers and anatomical specimens (in recent years there have been a few high-profile cases of attempts at repatriation of skull and other collections). later, when re-animating buck robinson, the aforementioned black man, the narrator notes that “our prize ... was wholly unresponsive to every solution we injected in its black arm; solutions prepared from experience with white specimens only” (15). this remark has two major implications: one, lovecraft’s narrator is endorsing a view of physiology that assumes black and white bodies function essentially differently, ie that the white and black ‘races’ are intrinsically and undeniably biologically different to one another (this viewpoint is never challenged or questioned throughout the text); two, that lovecraft specifically portrayed medical students who experimented on white bodies, an echo of the medical schools’ focus on white patients and white health, with black bodies treated as more disposable, black patients as less valuable, and the entire medical endeavour aimed toward the preservation of wealthy white people and plantation owners (nb: west worked out of boston).
although the films and the stories both take a somewhat whimsical tone toward their subject matter, i found it hard to engage with the films on a genuinely comedic level largely because these elements of the lovecraft stories are still present. i do think the concept here (white medical students body-stealing, and forcing a partial and torturous version of ‘life’ upon those bodies) has quite a bit of potential as a horror premise; unfortunately, both lovecraft and the filmmakers approach this subject matter in ways that attempt to mine comedy and horror from it without thinking through the larger historical context they are clearly and explicitly invoking, and as a result the whole thing falls flat for me.
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Obscure Animation Subject #55: Serial Experiments Lain
Originally posted on Twitter on April 15, 2023.
Created by Yasuyuki Ueda, written by Chiaki J. Konaka and directed by Ryūtarō Nakamura, this is a 13-episode miniseries produced by Triangle Staff, and aired on TV Tokyo from July 6 to September 28, 1998.
The series follows Lain Iwakura, an adolescent girl in suburban Japan, and her relation to the Wired, a global communications network similar to the internet. The show is an original idea to the point of it being considered "an enormous risk" by its producer Yasuyuki Ueda.
Ueda had to answer repeated queries about a statement made in an Animerica interview. He stated that Lain was "a sort of cultural war against American culture and the American sense of values we [Japan] adopted after WWII". He later expanded this in numerous interviews.
He created Lain with a set of values he took as distinctly Japanese; he hoped Americans would not understand the series as the Japanese would. This would lead to a "war of ideas" over the meaning of the anime, hopefully culminating in new communication between the two cultures.
When he discovered that the American audience held the same views on the series as the Japanese, he was disappointed. The Lain franchise was originally conceived to connect across forms of media (anime, video games, manga), but due to its failure that was scrapped.
Ueda said in an interview, "the approach I took for this project was to communicate the essence of the work by the total sum of many media products". The scenario for the video game was written first, and the video game was produced at the same time as the anime series.
However, the anime was released first. A dōjinshi titled "The Nightmare of Fabrication" was produced by Yoshitoshi ABe and released in an artbook An Omnipresence in Wired. Ueda and Konaka declared that the idea of a multimedia project wasn’t unusual in Japan, as opposed for Lain.
Despite the show’s confusion to the audience it wanted to appeal to, critics responded positively to the thematic and stylistic characteristics, and it was awarded an Excellence Prize by the 1998 Japan Media Arts Festival for "its question the meaning of contemporary life".
According to Christian Nutt from Newtype USA, the main attraction to the series is its keen view on "the interlocking problems of identity and technology". Nutt saluted Abe's "crisp, clean character design" and the "perfect soundtrack" in his 2005 review of series.
He said that "Serial Experiments Lain might not yet be considered a true classic, but it's a fascinating evolutionary leap that helped change the future of anime." Anime Jump gave it 4.5/5, and Anime on DVD gave it A+ on most criteria with some As for volume 3 and 4.
Lain was subject to commentary in the literary and academic worlds. The Asian Horror Encyclopedia calls it "an outstanding psycho-horror anime about the psychic and spiritual influence of the Internet". It notes that the red spots present in all the shadows look like blood pools.
It also notes the death of a girl in a train accident is "a source of much ghost lore in the twentieth century", more so in Tokyo. Gilles Poitras describes it as a "complex and somehow existential" anime that "pushed the envelope" of anime diversity in the 1990s.
Susan J. Napier in her 2003 reading to The Problem of Existence in Japanese Animation, compared the show to Ghost in the Shell and Spirited Away. According to her, the main characters of the two other works cross barriers; they can cross back to our world, but Lain can’t.
Napier asks whether there is something to which Lain should return, "between an empty 'real' and a dark 'virtual'". Mike Toole named SEL as one of the most important anime of the 90s. Anime Academy gave the series a 75%, but criticized it due to the "lifeless" setting it had.
Michael Poirier of EX magazine stated that the last three episodes fail to resolve the questions in other DVD volumes. Justin Sevakis of Anime News Network noted that the English dub was decent, but that the show relied so little on dialogue that it hardly mattered.
So all in all, this show is one of the weirdest shows out there, but despite being a miniseries, it still has significance thanks to the bizarre nature and sci-fi themes. Not in the levels of Neon Genesis Evangelion or Cowboy Bebop, but still really interesting to go through.
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Hope you are having a great day!! Remember to drink some water today !! You have any headcannons for Robin?
Hi Quinn! Thank you so much! And omg I’m so sorry I'm literally answering this a month late. I hope these Robin headcanons make up for that! :)
Robin is an overalls lesbian and collects patches to sew onto them
She takes Mike and Will to their first Pride march in NYC
She’s very into analyzing films in great detail, which annoys Steve but makes her bond with Jonathan
The moment she leaves Hawkins, she joins a queer organization like Act Up and takes part in protests for AIDS recognition
She’s very thrifty and insists on darning little hearts on the holes in her socks (his later leads to the darning of her friends’ socks)
Her favourite film is the Rocky Horror Picture Show and every Halloween she dresses up to watch it with friends (she goes as Magenta)
She has such a large collection of cool jackets omg
The cool aunt of the group, she always comes to cheer up the kids when one of them are having a rough day
She loves braiding people’s hair (nobody questions it anymore if Steve shows up with braids in his hair)
Her room is always a disaster, except for her bed, which is the neatest bed you’ll ever see because she can’t sleep in it otherwise
She’s the worst cook you’ll ever meet, but this doesn’t stop her from baking cookies for her friends (Steve loves them and raves about them constantly, Nancy finds them terrible but would never tell her)
She was that kid who was a little bit too obsessed with her English teacher and often ate lunch in her classroom
Robin loves making collages and collects National Geographic magazines for this very purpose
She’s one of the smartest people you’ll ever meet but gets terrible grades on tests because she can’t study to save her life
Definitely an undiagnosed ADHD girlie
She feeds the stray cats in her neighbourhood and eventually adopts a couple of them
Definitely into astrology and loves to blame the smallest inconveniences on her placements
Such a theatre kid like omg I just know she auditioned every year and was so upset when she got selected as the tree for a second year
She’s one of the first people Will comes out to and she is quite the gay encyclopedia who knows just the things to hand him and make him understand that he belongs
The best ride-or-die friend you’ll ever have!
I didn’t realize how many Robin headcanons I had until now omg... Hope you enjoy these, this was fun!
#robin buckley#robin buckley headcanons#robin headcanon#asks#stranger things headcanon#robin buckley hc#stranger things hc#definitely going to do more of these#send me asks
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Home
(Bones)
“I saw the world, I traveled and I learned so much.” He learned that the sunrise was just as beautiful in Africa, that bones looked the same in Rome, that there was murder and mystery in every corner. He learned that the best meals of the world meant nothing eaten by yourself. He learned that epiphanies came on sparse mountaintops so devoid of life that you felt you were the only one alive. That crisis came in an empty hotel rooms at one in the morning, halfway through a bottle of scotch and realizing that you were utterly and completely alone. That the adrenaline rush of adrenaline and endorphins was almost like solving a murder, even if not quite. That it was easier to crawl into a bottle than face the reality that the family he’d built was gone. That there was a special kind of terror found in waiting rooms waiting for std results because you couldn’t remember the last four weeks.
So yeah, he’d learned a lot.
“But at the end, I just wanted to go home.” To England? To Berkshire where his mum and sister went about their lives? He did miss England, but more so he missed the past, when he could hole up in his room and read encyclopedias and National Geographic magazines. Before he had to grow and up be something. He missed the lab, when he finally was something.
Vincent wasn’t a man of faith, but he knew many religions and beliefs. He wished he did have such a strong devotion, that he wasn’t truly abandoned, but at the end of the day he was a man of facts. Facts were a lonely religion.
Even if he was the richest man in the world, he liked to think he would have found his way back to the Jeffersonian anyway. He didn’t have his doctorate and was only an intern, but he felt at home under the white lights, solving mysteries and giving people their identities back. He had a purpose there, and he would have given away every penny of that million to just go back to the way it had been.
His adventures weren’t a complete loss, and there truly was no freedom like the outdoors, but he was content to spend the rest of his days inside. It was easy to close his eyes and remember the sights before he gave in to his weaknesses and tainted his perfect memory. He could see it so clearly, every little detail.
“Did you have a favorite place?” Angela smiled at him, small and soft and kind. She was special, tolerating him and seeming to care about the facts that drove his life. Hodgins was a lucky man.
Did he have a favorite place? Maine was beautiful, if cold, and Rome was historic, if overwhelming. He’d seen beautiful and rare sights, but if given the chance he wouldn’t go back to any of them. Those mountaintop epiphanies were passed and gone, and the magic of traveling for the first time was well worn.
“Coming back, that was my favorite.” He remembered the way the plane bumped down on the D.C runway and a weight had lifted. He’d been fresh from rehab and time with his family, but the second Cam called he had been on the first flight home. His mum said she understood, had patted him on the arm with a smile only mothers could pull off and told him to go back to the family he found.
The city had never looked so beautiful that night, grimy and dark and oh so perfect. His apartment was untouched, set on a recurring payment from the account he hadn’t drained completely, and it greeted him with open arms. It was dark and dusty as he set down his bags and sat in the dark, listening to police sirens in the distance.
And he cried. He cried, an ugly messy sort of cry, until he was aching and empty. He cried for all he had done and all he hadn’t, for his mistakes and his accomplishments. He cried for the horrors he’d seen and those he’d yet to see, for the ghosts of his past already starting to follow him. He cried for any and every reason, and to just cry at all. Vincent was only human, but he was home.
“This place is really that special to you?” Angela looked at him before looking back at her painting, a 8x10 painting of the snowfall in Alaska from his description alone. She was remarkably on point.
Instead of a proper answer he shrugged. He doubted he could put into words what the Jeffersonian meant to him. He found himself falling back on habit, one he’d let fade in the pursuit of adventure.
“Did you know,” He smiled at the faux shine of painted snow on the bowed branch of an evergreen. “That it's illegal to feed pigeons on the sidewalks and streets in San Francisco?”
Angela laughed, throwing her head back before giving him a look that felt like home.
“Never change Vincent.”
But he had changed. He had lost himself somewhere between Nevada and Paris, in scotch and pints with strangers. He let his love for knowledge be overshadowed by his need to feel something and fill a hole he hadn’t realized was there until the Lab stopped filing it. If anything’s he was changing back, finding his way back to himself.
He was here, he was home and finally getting better, and he never wanted to go.
—/
Your honour I miss him 🥲
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Oliver's Travel's.
Thirteen year old Ollie Wrigley likes playing footy and cricket with his mates going to the movies but most of all Ollie likes to read.
Ollie like all teenagers has acne all over his face, feet that grow so fast he goes through three pair a year, hair under his arms and above his willy and a voice out of tune with his small frame.
After school he plays with his friends until the sun goes down than he goes home has something to eat a warm bath than he rushes upstairs to devour another book.
Ollie will read books and magazines of any genre but his favorite is murder mysteries, thrillers and true crime magazines.
Thrillers are his favorite to read because he can open a bag of crisps and escape to a life full of danger and intrigue also Ollie like to pretend to be a policeman and solve the crime before he gets to the last page.
The year is 1996 and Ollie is lucky to have two parents who love him very much, for his last birthday they gave him a complete set of Funk & Wagnell encyclopedia's that should only take him about five years to read.
Tonight Olie is reading Cujo' by Stephen King the master of horror a genre that Ollie hasn't read before.
When he gets to Chapter Four Ollie's skin become clammy and his heart beats a little faster 'Jesus I can almost hear the screams and smell the blood dripping down the walls.'As he continues to read Ollie sneaks a look over to his bedroom window to make sure that it closed but than he gets out of bed and locks the window.
At 9 o'clock Ollie's mum Jean pokes her head in and reminds Ollie that it is a school night 'Ten more minutes young man than it is lights out.'
'Okay mum but can you please knock before you come in I am thirteen now not seven.'
Jean rolls her eyes before closing the door and going back down the stairs.
Ollie finishes Chapter Ten than he suddenly remembers the magazine that he has stashed under the mattress
A week before one of his mates Simon had given him a magazine that he said he stole from his big brother.
Ollie turns off the bedroom lights grabs the magazine and a torch him the bedstand than he starts to read or I should say look at the pictures in the old Hustler magazine.
Again his skin becomes clammy and the torch keeps slipping from his grip but Olie doesn't seem to mind his hand is gripped tightly around his growing willy.
'Go to sleep Ollie' Jeans calls from downstairs.
'God how does she always know that I am doing something I shouldn't be doing, maybe she is a witch or a gypsy?'
Just before Ollie turned sixteen his parents sat him down and told him they were moving north on the coast near the Scottish border.
'But why I like it here and all of my mates are here so why move?'
'Well son' his father Kenneth answers 'As you know I lost my job last week but i have been offered a job in Hartlepool that is a great opportunity for us as a family.'
Ollie isn't happy but what can he do so he just nods and go up to his room to mope.
A month later a removalist truck arrives at the family home in east London and after the truck is loaded with their possessions it starts the drive up north with Kenneth at the wheel of his trusty Volvo following close behind.
After leaving the capitol the drive along the motorway is smooth sailing and 4 hours later they pull outside of their new home.
'Is this it? Ollie enquires 'It looks like a hovel from a Charles Dickens novel.'
'Don't worry son Jean responds 'It is only temporary, once we are settled in and Ken's job works out we will find a new permanent home.'
Just then the removalists arrive and begin unloading the truck, Jean takes charge telling the men what goes where.
Ollie asks where his room is and Jean walks up a flight of stairs off the kitchen that leads up to a dusty attic. 'I know that it is small and a bit shabby but just remember that it will only be a few months, Kens new employers organized this place for us so lets be grateful for small mercy's and move on.'
'Fine' Ollie says' I noticed a MacDonalds just down the road I will go there while the truck is getting unloaded and come back later.'
Jean and Kenneth watch their son walk away unconcerned knowing that he will soon come around.
Two hours later Ollie goes back home and walks up the stairs to his room and is surprised to see that the attic space isn't as small as he first thought so he happily unpacks the boxes of his stuff and puts socks and underpants in the chest of drawers, hangs up shirts and pants in the wardrobe and an hour later he has his room to his liking.
He immediately picks up reading 'Cujo' and within seconds Ollie is totally engrossed in the story until his mum calls him downstairs 'Honey we are going grocery shopping do you want to come along it will give you a chance to check out Hartlepool.'
Ollie is about to say no thanks when he thinks this will be a good opportunity to see if there are any book shops in town.
They soon arrive at a Costco and Ollie tells his parents that he is just going to walk along the main street to see if he can find a book store.
'Okay Ollie but don't be too long.'
'I won't ma only be fifteen minutes or so.'
After walking along the main street for a few minutes Ollie is starting to get discouraged when down a narrow lane he notices what he at first thinks is a barber shop but when he walks closer Ollie can see that it is indeed a book shop and by the looks of it the store was built by the romans.
The shop is called 'Hartlepool New & Used Books' not very inspiring but Ollie walks in and immediately stops in his tracks because before him are over one hundred shelves of books plus the smell of old books brings comfort to Ollie so he wanders over to a shelf and begins to browse
'Can I help you young man?' Ollie turns around to see an old man standing there 'No thank you me and my family have just moved up here from London and well I have a thing for books so I came in to have a look.'
The man who to Ollie looks a lot like Basil Rathbone returns to the front counter and Ollie wanders around touching the spines of the old books but when he does a microscopic bookworm would wriggle onto his finger and begin to climb.
After five minutes Ollie still hasn't spotted anything of interest and starts to walk out 'Excuse me young man' the old man says pointing to the counter 'Are you a collector of Edgar Alan Poe or other 19th century authors? Ollie nods his head and picks up the book that Basil had pointed at.
When Ollie sees the 5000 pound price tag the immediately puts it back down. 'sorry but my family isn't rich'
'Have another look Ollie I am sure it now has a price to suit.'
Again Ollie picks up a first edition of Tale's of Mystery & Madness and the price tag now reads 50p 'What how can that be ? A minute ago the price was' the old man silences Ollie with a wave of his hand 'A bargain is yours for the taking Ollie do you want it wrapped?'
Ollie nods his head and waits while Basil wraps the book 'There you go Ollie a pleasure doing business with you, see you tomorrow and by the way my name isn't Basil Rathbone it is Cecil Hawthorne seller of books weaver of dreams'.
Ollie walks outside not quite believing what just happened first the old man seemed to know my name than knew that I was calling him Bruce plus how the price changed right before his eyes.
Ollie meets his parents at Costco and they notice that something has upset their boy 'What is the matter Ollie you look like you have seen a ghost.'
'It is nothing mum um I wasn't looking an almost got hit by a car but I am fine now.
'Oh Ollie please be careful in the future and look where you are going.'
Ollie feels bad because he has never lied to his parents before 'I will mum I promise.'
Back at home Ollie eats a meal of roast chicken peas and sauteed potatoes and normally he would demolish the food in a matter of minutes but tonight he only pushes the food around the plate.
'I'm not very hungry mum can I go up to my room and eat later?'
'Of course son just don't forget to eat because it is your first day at your new school tomorrow.'
Up in the attic Ollie changes into his pyjamas gets into bed and turns to page one of the Edgar Alan Poe masterpiece.
As he begins to read the bookworms that have slowly been wriggling up his body for the last few hours now sit on begin to weave their magic.
The attic swirls and dances taking Ollie on a ride back to the 19th century where now Ollie finds himself sitting up in a huge straw bed reading under a gas lamp.
His bedroom is a big with walls made from stone and brick with a ceiling of thatch.
As he reads a lady wearing a white apron enters the room carrying a tray of biscuits and a wooden tumbler of milk 'Would master Oliver like me to fetch him some rice pudding or will the biscuits and milk suffice?'
'Thank you um erf sorry but I seem to have forgotten your name'.
'Are you feeling well master? It is I miss Mary your personal maid.'
Mary quickly rushes to his side and puts a hand to his forehead 'You haven't got a fever master Oliver so I am sure that it isn't the plague that ails you'.
'Plague' Ollie splutters 'Yes master the plague sickness spread through the masquerade ball last night, surely you remember sir?'
'That is why you are isolated up here with nothing but books to keep you company.'
'Do you wish me to seek the doctor?'
'No Mary leave me now I need to rest.'
Ollie has one last look around the old fashioned bedroom than he makes a wish hoping that when he closes the book he will return to the attic and get ready for school tomorrow.
'One two three Ollie opens his eyes and is happy to find himself back in familiar surroundings.
He is sitting up in bed holding the book in his lap with one hand and the other holding the tumbler of milk and when he looks further Ollie discovers that he is still wearing the long white gown that were worn back in Edgar Alan Poe's day.
The bookworms nestle in his ear to rest while they wait for the next adventure to begin.
Ollie Puts the Poe book in his book case not daring to open it again until he finds out from Mister fricking Cecil Hawthorne what the hell is going on but first he needs to clean up before going to sleep for the night.
It is only 8.30 but he wants to make a good impression on his first day at his new school so he wanders downstairs towards the bathroom for a quick hot shower but he has forgotten that he is still wearing the white gown plus he still has the wooden tumbler of milk in his hand.
'Ollie is that you? and what in the hell are you wearing?'
'Of course it is me mum who were you expecting Prince Charles?'
'Don't take that tone with me Ollie where did you find that garb and what is that you are holding?'
Before Ollie can react his mother grabs the tumbler and gives it a whiff. 'Smells like milk but why is it yellow and not white? this isn't the same milk that I bought today Ollie, where did it come from?'
'I don't know mum but I found these old clothes in a chest up in the attic so i put them on while I was reading an old 19th century novel".
'Don't lie to me Ollie I completely cleaned your room today and there was no chest up there, now lets go up and take a look shall we.'
Ollie hangs his head knowing that he has been caught out, all he can do now is follow her upstairs and try to figure out an answer.
Entering Ollie's room Jean suddenly stops 'Well I'll be fucked there is a chest.'
Ollie looks around his mum and sees a big mahogany chest sitting at the end of Ollie's bed and on top of the chest is a tankard of milk.'
'Sorry for doubting you son but I could have sworn that the chest wasn't here this afternoon.'
'That's OK Mum I want tell Dad about you saying the F word if you keep quite about the chest, Deal?'
Mother and son shake hands and both of them keep the promise.
The following morning Ollie is a bit nervous when he walks into Hartlepool High School but soon two kids in his first introduce themselves as Timohty Smith a tall ginger haired boy and a girl Sally Lightfoot who is around the same height as Ollie only she long black hair and a nice smile.
The three teenagers become fast friends and attend all of the classes and have lunch together.
At the end of the day they leave school and walk down the main street because Tim and Sally want to go to the chippy and get a battered sav each to eat on their walk home plus Ollie needs to talk to Cecil Hawthorne 'I will see guys tomorrow morning I am going to check out the bookstore I saw down the lane that I noticed yesterday.
'What bookstore Ollie?' Sally asks 'That crumbling old building down has been condemned for years.'
Ollie doesn't tell them that he talked to an old man inside yesterday but the three of them walk towards the lane and sure the ancient stone building is barricaded and looks like it has been for a long time.
Tim and Sally wave goodbye than walk away eating their after school snack leaving their bamboozled friend behind.
Ollie takes a seat on a bench for a few minutes than walks towards the lane again and sure enough the book shop is lit up like a Christmas tree.'
On entering a tiny bell announces his presence and Mister Hawthorne comes from behind a curtain at the back of the store.' Ah if it isn't Master Oliver himself, did you enjoy your little adventure yesterday? Sorry about not letting your friends on our secret but it is for the best.'
'That is alright because I don't think Tim and Sally are ready for what is happening and come to think of it I don't think I am as well but thank you for having the wooden chest magically appear in my room yesterday, you saved me from a difficult situation.'
Cecil Hawthorne bows his head in acknowledgement ''No trouble Master Oliver I'll wash your back if you wash mine.'
Ollie is a little creeped out by those words but asks 'Why me? There are a millions of other people you could have chosen from.'
'That is correct but you are perfect for the adventures Oliver because you love books and having fun and there is no need to be worried because when you go on a ride and start to feel a little uneasy all you have to do is close the book and you will return home safe and sound but remember to always open the book in your room and no where else.'
Ollie wants to tell Hawthorne that he didn't really answer his question but he stays silent.
'Also Master Oliver I must tell you that when you entered my premises yesterday a trillion tiny bookworms read your brainwaves while you had a look around just to make sure that you are the right young man to undertake the travels and please don't be alarmed but 100 of those worms jump aboard and are now part of your being.'
'These bookworms are for your safety Master Oliver they will guide you along the way and keep you on the right road.'
Ollie for some reason doesn't say a word but he desperately wants to run at the door as fast as he can but his feet refuse to move so he just in place awaiting the details of his next adventure .
On the counter sits a first edition of 'Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, the book shimmers beneath the fluorescent lights and Ollie picks it up and holds it close to his chest. 'Good choice Master Oliver, now go and when you are ready open the book and begin to read and you will travel to the deep south of America for another adventure.
'Safe travels but remember to open the book in your room only if you open it in a public place well you might not make it back.
Cecil Hawthorne watches his obedient underling walk from the store in a slow shuffle than he goes back behind the curtain and walks way beneath the earth's surface into the cauldron of hell.
THE END.
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Greaser's Palace (1972) is an (Unfulfilling) Weirdo's Paradise
This is installment one in our “Psychotronic Cinema” series.
The films in this series are “psychotronic,” a term borrowed from Michael J. Weldon’s magazine and encyclopedia. Psychotronic covers the wide swath of cinema that is either slightly out there or entirely bonkers – horror, science fiction, fantasy, exploitation, blockbusters, flops, low budgets, no budgets, thought-provoking, brain…
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#1972#Allan Arbus#cult film#Greaser&039;s Palace#movie review#psychotronic cinema#Robert Downey Sr#Western
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Must Play Games In 2022
What other list, towards the end of November, could be better than a list of incredible games you absolutely must play?
With the release of new games, the gaming industry has expanded and improved this year. One of the intriguing updates was EA Sports' and Marvel's partnership to create action-adventure video games.
In addition to this, many theme/seasonal games have also been published, such as games for the fall, winter, Christmas, and even the Halloween holiday were not forgotten as there are horror games to make the Halloween celebration more frightening!
Must play games in 2022
These games were much anticipated and received amazing reviews from the gaming community when they were launched in 2022 at various periods. Not sharing our top video games from this year would be a bummer. Amazingly, they might rank among the best in 2023.
Overwatch 2:
Overwatch 2 is a 2022 first-person shooter that Blizzard Entertainment initially plans to release on October 4th, 2022. The game, a follow-up to the 2016 hero shooter Overwatch, aims to create a cooperative environment for persistent player-versus-player modes while maintaining a shared arena for player-versus-player modes. The switch from six to five team members was a significant change in PvP modes.
2. The Outlast Trials:
Although a specific release date has not been confirmed, it’s going to be available this year. This game comes with new updates that make it more fun. With companions, you can experience the dread of being pursued by sledgehammer-wielding brutes in The Outlast Trials. Instead of examining a hospital this time, the Murkoff Corporation is using you and your friends as test subjects for various experiments. Oh, and forget about carrying about a camcorder for night vision; instead, the guys at Murkoff have surgically implanted night vision goggles within your head.
3. Dwarf Fortress Steam:
Steam has confirmed the release of Dwarf Fortress after 20 years and it is one game to add to your wishlist. The main game option includes taking a small group of dwarves and making a home for them in the harsh wilderness. A fresh collection of pixel art tilesets and mouse capability are included in the new implementation. In order to lessen the game's severe learning pattern, there is also a basic tutorial, an encyclopedia, a complete soundtrack, ambient sounds, and other quality enhancements.
4. The Callisto Protocol:
The Callisto Protocol, a sci-fi horror game, is one of the most eagerly anticipated games to be released in December and is scheduled for release on December 2. You have to avoid being mauled by an alien in this single-player survival game. Sounds intriguing! It will be accessible on PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox.
5. Need for Speed Unbound:
Wow, there are so many games to choose from and so much to look forward to. I'm hoping this list has increased your excitement to play these games.
If you enjoyed this post, visit Technowize Magazine for more news, reviews, and information about technology-related devices, games, and apps. Don't forget to subscribe to gain unlimited access.
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Organizing my under desk storage and got to my magazine. Refound my treasures!!! Also, realized that i have duplicates of America's and World's Scariest places magazines. Maybe i should give those away lol!
Also....my HORROR ENCYCLOPEDIA 😍😍😍😍
#horror encyclopedia magazine#horror magazine#slasher community#freddy krueger#chucky#ghostface#jason voorhees#carrie white#frankenstein#creature from the black lagoon
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2021 Masquerade Awards and Judges
San Diego Comic-Con Category Awards
Graciously awarded by:
Our 2021 Masquerade Judges
Will be selecting a winner for each of the following categories: Best in Show, Judges’ Choice, Best Re-Creation, Best Original Design, Best Workmanship, Most Beautiful, Most Humorous, and Best Group.
All winners receive 2021 Masquerade Winners Medallions and complimentary tickets to San Diego Comic-Con 2022
Frank and Son Award for Most Outstanding Costume
$1,000 Cash Prize
Graciously awarded by:
The Frank & Son Collectible Show, of the City of Industry, California. Frank and Sons is a giant one-stop show for all things collectible at their bi-weekly mini-cons and has supported fan costuming at our conventions with generous cash prizes for many years.
The David C. Copley Award for Most Innovative Costume
$500 in Amazon Gift Cards
Graciously awarded by:
The UCLA David C. Copley Center for The Study of Costume Design, judged and awarded by Copley Center Director Deborah Nadoolman Landis.
The David C. Copley Center serves UCLA TFT students, the university, the international community of historians, filmmakers and professional costume designers. The Center provides a home for the study of costume design history, genre research, costume illustration as an art form, and the influence of costume design on fashion and popular culture.
Costume Designers Guild Spotlight Award
Costume Design Book, a copy of CDG Magazine, and a $100 gift card to Mood Fabrics, the largest online fabric store for designers and anyone who sews.
Graciously awarded by:
The Costume Designers Guild IATSE Local 892, representing Hollywood costume designers, assistant costume designers, and costume illustrators working at the highest levels of expertise in motion pictures, TV, commercials, music videos, and new media.
The CDG is part of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees (I.A.T.S.E.)
Meet Our 2021 Masquerade Judges
Jennifer May Nickel
Is a Costume Designer for Television and Film. Classically trained in theatre, Jennifer holds an MFA in Costume Design from Carnegie Mellon University and also studied in England at Oxford University (St. Edmund’s College: Myth and Ritual in Theatre). A proud member of the Costume Designers’ Guild Jennifer has won the Elizabeth Schrader Kimberly Costume Design Award, The Cecilia Cohen Award for Excellence in Theatre and The WCDAC Achievement Award
Her Television Costume Design credits include Neflix’s Cabin with Bert Kreischer and Taylor Tomlinson: Quarter-Life Crisis, the CW’s Containment, Fox’s What Just Happened??! with Fred Savage, Syfy’s TV movie Miami Magma, the History Channel’s Legend of the Superstition Mountains, TLC’s TV movie The Secret Santa and Nickelodeon’s The Massively Mixed-Up Middle School Mystery. Jennifer has Costume Designed various CollegeHumor Originals, SMBC Theater’s hit web series Starpocalypse and pilots for E!, Nickelodeon, Relativity TV and CrisisLab.
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Deborah Nadoolman Landis, PhD
Costume designer, historian and endowed chair at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television Landis is the Founding Director of the David C. Copley Center for Costume Design. Landis received an M.F.A. in costume design from UCLA and a Ph.D. in the history of design from the Royal College of Art, London. Her distinguished career includes Animal House (1978), The Blues Brothers (1980), An American Werewolf in London (1981), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Trading Places (1983), The Three Amigos (1987), Coming to America (1988), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award, and the groundbreaking music video Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1983). Now considered ‘classic,’ characters she has designed, like Indiana Jones, have become international cultural icons. Her costume designs are found in the collections of museums including the Smithsonian Museum of American History (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones), the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame (Michael Jackson’s Thriller) and most recently, the National Museum of African American History and Culture (Coming to America).
A two-term past president of the Costume Designers Guild, Local 892, and a past-Governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (2013-2018), Landis sits on the Board of the National Film Preservation Foundation. She is the author of six books including Dressed: A Century of Hollywood Costume Design, FilmCraft: Costume Design, Hollywood Sketchbook: A Century of Costume Illustration and the catalogue for her landmark exhibition, Hollywood Costume, which she curated at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London in 2012. The exhibition, a celebration of one hundred years of costume design history while showcasing the designers’ contribution and process, open just three months, with an attendance of more than 265,000 visitors, became the most successful exhibition in the long history of that museum. The show then traveled to Melbourne, Australia, Phoenix, Arizona and Los Angeles. Landis is the editor-in-chief of the upcoming three-volume Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Film and Television Costume Design (2021).
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Garnet Filo
Is a Costume Designer with more than 40 projects under her belt. Recently she’s Costume Design assisted on several sci-fi series including The Orville and The Mandalorian; further developing her skills by working closely with their Costume Designers. Garnet has always been fascinated by the futuristic and the fantastic and her passion to bring these to life only continues to grow. She is the chairperson for the Costume Designers Guild I.A.T.S.E. local 892 Comic-Con committee.
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Allan Lavigne
Is a self-taught costumer, make-up special effects artist, sculptor, and [MJ1] painter with 40 years’ experience in costume fabrication Formerly a top costume winner for many years at fan conventions around the USA, including many San Diego Comic-Cons, he brings with him great insight from having honed his costume skills as an on-stage contestant himself. Since then, he has gone on to do work for Disney, Lucasfilm, Sony Pictures, and more. In his Bronze Armory studio, in the San Francisco Bay Area, he creates, lectures, and teaches.
His costume work has been exhibited in museums, at film premieres and at numerous conventions. His current exhibit of screen-accurate motion picture and television costume reproductions “The Batman Armory” is featured at the San Francisco Cartoon Museum, requested by Warner Brothers to promote the new Batman encyclopedia: Batman: The Definitive History of the Dark Knight in Comics, Films and Beyond which Allan was technical advisor for. In a second gallery of the museum, his Wonder Woman costume re-creations accompany the featured exhibit about that character.
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Gigi “Fast Elk” Bannister (formerly Porter)
has been in the film industry for over 35 years as a SFX Artist, Director, Producer, and actor. Better known for her practical special effects and production work, Gigi is experienced on both sides of the camera. She has appeared in over a dozen films and television shows, and is a popular guest at horror conventions, film festivals, workshops, and seminars. For several years she has donated time at San Diego Comic-Cons to assist Masquerade contestants with their special effects make-up needs.
Gigi is credited as a Producer on Don Coscarelli and David Hartman’s “Phantasm V: Ravager” (2016) and Steve King’s “One For the Road” (2011) (Night Shift Anthology). As a character actor, she appeared in “Bloody Bloody Bible Camp” (2011), “Carnies” (2009), in “Small Town Saturday Night” (2009) (with Chris Pine, and John Hawkes), and again in Don Coscarelli’s “Bubba Ho-Tep” (2002) (Bruce Campbell, Reggie Bannister and Ozzie Davis). She has produced and directed on numerous projects including dozens of live events, fundraisers and seminars, six independent feature films, and six shows for television. More information on Gigi can be found on IMDb.
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Tears In The Rain
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe…All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.”
-- Blade Runner (David Peebles & Rutger Hauer)
The radar screen manufacturers -- RCA, GE, and others -- started jonesin’ for cash when the end of WWII dried up all that sweat & easy military materiel money.
Commercial consumer television existed before WWII in England, the UK, and Germany but it was a super-expensive technology confined to a few very wealthy homes in a few select markets or in Germany’s case, public venues such as beer halls.
Radar screens and TV tubes were basically different applications of the same thing, so the radar tube manufacturers shifted their production to TV sets pitched to post-war consumers as the must-have status symbol.
Problem:
Said TV sets needed something to show and while there was live national network and local programing, most early stations filled their air time with old movies / cartoons / serials / comedy shorts.
That was the cultural gestalt I and other boomers grew up in during the 1950s, an era when much of the on air media dated back to the 1930s.
I’ve always been more culturally observant and curious than others in my generational cohort, and while they blandly / blindly watched Bugs Bunny and Popeye and Betty Boop and Our Gang, I was asking my parents and grandmother and aunt about the odd details I saw in old media (it didn’t hurt that we had a beautiful art deco edition of Collier’s Encyclopedia that my grandparents acquired in the 1920s in the house as well).
As a result I knew far more about the Depression and Prohibition and war rationing and other major cultural events and touchstones prior to our generation than did most other boomers.
When our history and social studies textbooks finally introduced these topics in junior high and high school, I was already intimately familiar with them.
As a result, I fell in love with the Marx Brothers and continue to love them to this day.
And while I watched and re-watched The Three Stooges, once I discovered Laurel and Hardy I left Larry, Moe, Curly, Shemp, Joe, and Curly Joe behind.
But the thing is, to fully understand and appreciate and know and love the Marx Brothers, you have to understand the pop culture of their era.
The same applies -- to a lesser degree -- to Laurel and Hardy.
The key difference is that The Three Stooges are pure physical mayhem: There is nothing to understand.
They are imbeciles who inflict pain on themselves and one another, and while far, far inferior to Groucho / Harpo / Chico or Stan & Ollie, they will outlast them.
Anybody from any era or any culture can access The Three Stooges, but if you don’t understand a “gat” (short for gatling gun) is 1930s slang for an automatic pistol, then Groucho’s line upon seeing a automatic in a drawer with a pair of derringers -- “This gat’s had gittens” -- is absolute gibberish.
Likewise Laurel and hardy require some understanding of how American cultural values functioned in the 1920s and 30s; if you don’t get that, a lot of their humor is lost.
Our Gang / Little Rascals ages better because kids are kids and much of what they do is universal.
But even there much of their references have to do with the Depression or WWII rationing and scrap drives and if you don’t grasp that then those jokes zoom past you.
The situation isn’t confined to pre-WWII media, either.
The Marx Brothers and Laurel & Hardy might possibly be recognized by the current generation as something their parents and grandparents watched, but the Ritz Brothers are forgotten by all except those who specialize in comedy / pop culture history. Wheeler & Woolsey are even more obscure, and Olsen & Johnson obscurer still, and if you’ve ever heard of Lum & Abner my hat’s off to you.
And holy shamolley, those are just the comedians we’re talking about. There’s a whole universe of pop culture lost as fans of old B-Westerns die off, not to mention minor pop stars of music and small movies in the 1930s / 40s / 50s.
Silent movies have virtually disappeared from pop culture today; they are things of the past, historical artefacts.
Thanks to the Internet Archive and Project Gutenberg and Comic Book + and Digital Comics Museum and other sites, literally tens of thousands of hours of old radio shows and countless pulp magazines and comic books and other media are available, but who accesses them today except the truly die-hard genre fans or the pop culture historians?
Why morn their passing?
As Theodore Sturgeon famously observed, isn’t 90% of everything crap?
Yes, it is.
But that doesn’t make it any less of the cultural gestalt, the zeitgeist of the era than the few timeless gems that shine through.
. . .
As pop culture historian Jaime Weinman points out, the boomer generation -- the late 1940s to early 1960s -- offered a particularly fallow time for pop culture.
We enjoyed access to previous generations of pop culture, brought to us in curated form. Even if those curators were costumed local cartoon show and horror movie hosts, we got at least some understanding of what led up to our own generation.
Weinman observes that because of technical broadcast reasons, only a few avenues fell open to new programming -- and that new programming could be rerun again and again to fill in gaps in local stations’ air time.
It created a generation with remarkably deep pop culture roots, even if relative few members of that generation were aware of them.
We were, to some degree or another, aware of a vast library of older pop culture media and icons and idioms.
Ironically, this began changing in the late 1960s, slowly at first, but coming full flower in the mid-1970s as music cassette recordings allowed us to create our own playlists off radio shows and record players, and cable TV stopped being something for the hinterlands and started penetrating urban markets, thus literally uniting the country with first dozens then hundreds and a virtually infinite number of channels and streaming options.
But the real nail in the golden age of pop culture’s coffin was the introduction of home TV recordings and time shifting, meaning we no longer needed to wait for curated programing but could watch what we wanted when we wanted.
Despite a wider range of options, older material became less and less popular, and the lack of curation is a big part of that.
With nobody to supply some sort of context -- even goofy horror host context -- older examples of pop culture became less accessible.
The newer generations look less to the past, more to the future.
. . .
As I’ve written before, endings fascinate me.
Right now I’m seeing a generational shift with the boomer generation’s pop culture rapidly fading to be replaced by Generation Z and the generations to follow them.
I look at the boomer era and wonder how much will survive.
Very little, I’m afraid.
And that includes losing some of the best our era had to offer.
For example, how many people today know of The Firesign Theatre?
In the mid-1960s through the early 1970s, they performed absolutely brilliant satirical comedy on radio and recordings. Their album Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers received a Hugo nomination for best sci-fi drama presentation of 1970.
I still laugh when I hear their recordings -- but I laugh because I lived in that era.
Their humor relies heavily on topical subjects and the counter culture of the late 1960s-70s. They were very much a Southern California phenomenon…and thanks to radio and TV and movies of that era, that culture permeated the entire country.
But that era is gone, and now when I listen to them I laugh, but to use a specific example I laugh because I know who Ralph Williams was and what he meant to Southern California pop culture in that time.
You don’t get that, you don’t get the joke, and the brilliance of The Firesign Theatre’s humor is lost.
Like tears in the rain.
. . .
Cheech y Chong will survive, because like The Three Stooges, their appeal lies in their basic stupidity.
True, many of their routines make contemporary pop culture references, but material like “Dave’s Not Here” is timeless.
You don’t even have to get the drug references to find it hilarious.
Conversely, the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers will fade.
As characters, they are of a particular time and place: Hippie dippie San Francisco.
They can’t survive transplantation, as was demonstrated in their last few stories.
Now there’s an animated series that brings them from the swinging 60s to to Trump 20s and it just doesn’t work.
The creators Don’t Get The Joke.
I don’t blame them for failing to get the joke, but updating the Freak Bros. would be like updating the Marx Brothers.
It can be done, but only badly.
. . .
Music will always have musicians and buffs who will track every obscure item they can find, but a lot of the best and most innovative work will be forgotten by mainstream culture.
This is because in many case, the best musicians are way ahead of the rest of their field, and their innovations are only made palatable by others who take them up and reinterpret them in a way to make them accessible to contemporary audiences.
Frank Zappa, as much as I personally love him as a cultural icon, will fade fast after the last boomer dies.
Basically, he didn’t make singable music.
There are a lot of brilliant innovations in his work, but his lyrics are so idiosyncratic as to be impossible to cover.
That, and a lot of his lyrics and subject matter would not be comfortably acceptable today.
Yeah, when he did it he was trying to make a satirical point, but when modern audiences hear it, they don’t hear the sharp commentary on the culture of his time, they hear songs that seem to glorify sexual violence and racial bigotry.
Most of the people who decry so-called “cancel culture” today are hypocrites trying to justify their own offenses, but there will be creators and components of pop culture who simply aren’t going to make the cut.
I can show you on paper why radio’s Amos And Andy was a brilliantly written show.
You’re not going to get modern audiences to accept white actors doing blackface…or black voice.
Zappa is acceptable today because there are still enough people who get the joke.
When we’re gone, so are most of his songs (his instrumentals hopefully will live on).
. . .
Quentin Tarantino’s star is already starting to set.
His copious dropping of the n-bomb seemed daring and edgy in the early to mid-90s now seems boorish and tiresome.
People don’t want to listen to that, and how can you make them watch what they don’t want to watch?
The Hateful Eight might endure since it gives a sorta context for its racial animosity, ditto Django Unchained, but even they will be problematic due to Tarantino’s Red Apple universe -- a world similar enough to ours to be mistaken for it at first glance but ultimately completely different.
Inglorious Basterds will ultimately fail the history smell test by audiences who will perceive it as wildly inaccurate.
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood probably has the least problematic elements in it, but it too is so firmly set in a specific time and place that only those who lived it can truly appreciate it.
When we’re gone, who can follow the pop culture breadcrumbs that lead us through the movie?
Tarantino is a brilliant writer / director, and film students in the know will study his movies to see how he pulled them off…
…but they’re going to move far past him.
(He may enjoy a revival 50 years from now, the way certain film makers get rediscovered a half century after their deaths. If so, it will be by people able to see past the pop culture references to the real story beneath.)
. . .
Roger Corman and other exploitation film makers aren’t going to as welcomed once the boomer generation departs.
Boomers see them as transgressive artists, tweaking the nose of so-called respectable society.
New generations will see they as creeps who exploited violence and sexism.
(And we shouldn’t mourn its loss; most of it is soft-core pornography. But there were a few shining moments that shine only if you know the context, and that is fading fast.)
. . .
Superheroes probably won’t die out just as Westerns never completely died out, but like Westerns their audience is rooted in a very particular time and place.
I mentioned B-Westerns earlier; once upon a time there were literally dozens of B-Western stars, each with their own face base and merchandising and movies…
…and now there are no more B-Westerns.
We remember Roy Rogers because he’s culturally referenced elsewhere (and Gene Autry because he left a great big museum in his name).
B-Westerns’ success was based on fulfilling audience expectations, essentially giving the same thing they’d seen before, only slightly different.
Superheroes have degenerated into that.
In their current form, they’re deconstructions based on what a previous generation’s pop culture produced.
The superhero market has been supersaturated in the past and collapsed before.
This time when it collapses it will take along countless near-identical characters and storylines.
What emerges from it will be as different from the current iteration of superheroes as The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly was from My Pal Trigger.
. . .
Likewise, if James Bond is to survive, there will be a drastic retooling of the property.
It is possible; Sherlock Holmes has been retooled often.
The original Connery Bonds, the ones we consider to be “iconic” will eventually be viewed as an embarrassment.
The world and its attitudes are changing, and while there will always be room for heroes, audiences will be a bit more discerning about which heroes they want.
The attitudes of the original Bonds will not fly with future generations.
. . .
Finally, one prospect that will make it into the future, though not necessarily on its own strengths, no matter how significant they are.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 has skewered pop culture via bad movies since 1988.
Supported by a legion of fans, there are several books and websites that annotate all the references found in the various MST3K series.
Scholars 500 years in the future will thank these fans and researchers for their efforts.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 and its various annotated spinoffs will be the Rosetta stone of 20th century pop culture.
It will provide a context to make the jokes understandable, but more importantly than that, it will open a window into what people were thinking and feeling in the last decade of the 20th century.
It and the films it spoofed will be studied with near Talmudic intensity (you think I jest; I do not). They’ll provide insight that will help future generations and cultures understand this one.
© Buzz Dixon
#Once Upon A Time In Hollywood#Wheeler and Woolsey#Lum And Abner#The Ritz Brothers#The Firesign Theatre#The Marx Brothers#Laurel And Hardy#Frank Zappa#Olsen And Johnson#Our Gang#Little Rascals#The Three Stooges#Groucho Marx#Harpo Marx#Chico Marx#Stan Laurel#Oliver Hardy
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Once-Upon in Morioh-Cho: Welcome to Morioh-Cho 🚏
In the previous chapter:
- What a weird girl.
Sliding the shutters, he sets up to work again.
Chapter 1:
It is seven a.m and Morioh-Cho is being awoken. In the one small house the girl is sleeping and while sunlight is wading through the windows. Solitude is bliss, but a ringing alarm does not care about it.
- Oh my God! Seven o'clock in the morning come to us from truly hell. Damn, my routine has come back again.
Despite the fact that Sophie hates early times of day, she is being excited. After brushing teeth and having breakfast, she has run to the table and opened a laptop, where E-mail was sent.
- Dear Sophie,
We are aware of that you arrived at the town yesterday. We hope your trip was not uncomfortable that is why we ask our new colleague to prepare something. You are a second-year student, a young girl, who can show the readership new “fresh” point of view. Morioh-Cho is admired all over Japan because of its famous people, high standard of living, life satisfaction and lower murder rate. You need to write an article or to interview an interesting person for the thesis “Morioh-Cho > Tokyo”. You must prove that Japan is not only a capital but it includes captivating small towns. Good luck! See you on Monday.
Best regards,
K.G
Sophie was sitting in the classroom, when the teacher approaches her and said that the girl would be sent for practice. She was studying hardly during these two years that is why the university has chosen Sophie. The committee analyzed her personal knowledge in the field of Romance-Germanic languages and they had a decision to improve Sophie’s skills because of practice at radio station. The town of Morioh-Cho became a perfect place to do it.
- An interesting day starts from an interesting challenge. Obviously, I absolutely don’t know this area and people who live here. Perhaps, I should go to the library, where I can find out new information, shouldn’t I?
Morioh-Cho is a charming town, representing as a suburb of the City S. The area is not populous which includes 58 713 citizens. Travelers visit Morioh-Cho to see marvelous attractions like Angelo Stone, Cape Boing Boing, Phantom Alley, Rohan Kishibe’s house and many others. Despite the terrible appearance, Angelo Stone is surprisingly famous as a meeting place for lovers, Сape Boing Boing is admired by many sailors, Phantom Alley scares foreign visitors by the legend about a dead girl and one day Rohan Kishibe’s house was rebuilt due to a fire whose repair cost around 700 million yen. Sophie did not expect that she would be suddenly acquainted with the last sightseeing’s owner.
A Morioh-Cho library is a lovely ancient building which is located in the Eastern part of the town. Benches are set up in the small yard, surrounding by the fragrant apple trees. Sometimes their branches touch windows, making a sense of rustling music.
The books’ house amazes the girl by its variety. There are many shelves of different creative works, representing all kinds of genres: classical literature, science fiction, comics, encyclopedias, vocabularies and tables with fresh newspapers and magazines.
- Smells like my grandmother’s pantry.
As Sophie thinks this place is not very popular among the locals. In the one short novel a Russian writer Checkov mentioned that a library existed because of young girls and Jews that is why there is only one figure here, excepting our second-year student.
It is a handsome man of medium height who has a beautiful slender frame. The emerald eyes is looking at the bright animal encyclopedia, describing types of exotic birds. His sharp features have got the girl’s attention: arched eyebrows, long lashes, a straight nose, a perfect-size mouth and cheekbones look magnetic. His hair is a dark-green colour and hairdo represents as an undercut that is aligned sideways. Obviously, this man has a great taste in clothes because all parts of the look match perfectly. He seems pretty young but at the same time, his face shows good life experience.
- These hands… The fingers are so long and sophisticated. Who knows, maybe he is fond of drawing or playing the piano.
Sophie keeps her gaze on him directly. He is being inspiring the girl that is why she looks again and again. She is being afraid that this charming man will notice her, making an awkward situation for both, but he does not even think about breaking away from his book. It is for a while.
- Please, help us! He is holding a gun!
- Wait, calm down! I call the police!
The man has immediately shut the book and run to the window. His eyes are turning from shining green to dark- swampy, looking at the street with hostility and astonishment. His face is changing, expressing grimaces of fear or confidence. He has gone outside.
- What has happened? What did he see?
The street is crowded. People have frozen in various poses in front of the girl's eyes: someone is lying, pressed to the ground, someone is running away without looking back and others are standing rooted to the spot with faces are full of horror. Finally, it has become clear what happened: an unknown masked man decided to rob a new jewelry store that has opened nearby. The criminal has already managed to take the seller hostage.
- I take all the money, otherwise I will kill him! Do you listen, bastards?! I will shoot his head, if you interfere!
Sophie has realized. There will be no other chance.
- [Mrs. Brightside], teleport me.
Everything happens in the blink of an eye. After a couple of seconds, Sophie is already sitting on wet pavement, holding her hand in the victim's cheek. Distance between them and the robber is enough to be safe.
- Your shoulder… It is bleeding…
Sophie uses her Stand very seldom. He got this ability, when she was a first-year student: someone hit her with the gold arrow, while she had realized that it was her last day when she may breathe and enjoy her life. The girl closed her eyes, which were full of tears, and thought about the darling people, the family. Instead of death [Mrs. Brightside] was arisen.
- Look! The police are driving! Higashikata-san! It is Higashikata-san!
- How are you? Do you need help? - says a woman in white clothes.
- I’m okay. Need to bandage his shoulder, will you? Let me go, I'm in hurry, - says Sophie, looking at her watch. She must get out of here.
- Morning, Rohan, what happened here?
- Josuke, what a “nice” meeting. Another fool tried to steal money and took the person hostage. I used [Heaven’s Door], you shouldn’t be worry. Josuke, I have got something… A weird girl arrived one day ago. I saw her today with the injured seller. She made strange things and I suppose a girl is a Sta…
- Rohan, you’re being paranoid. I don’t want to hear anything about your silly guesses. We have been quiet for more than ten years. Don’t put labels on the person who just achieved our bed town.
- But I see her around the library and then…
- Rohan, the conversation is over.
Sophie has approached the house, wiping sweat from your face.
- Higashikata-san, welcome me to Morioh-Cho!
⬅️ To be continued
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SPEECH FOR CIVIC ORGANIZATION
February 4, 1949
“Speech for Civic Organization” (aka “Liz Debates Alaska in Town Forum”) is episode #29 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on February 4, 1949 on the CBS radio network.
Synopsis ~ Liz, anxious to win the approval of an important dinner guest, simply agrees with everything he says. The guest is so impressed with her intelligence that he invites her to be a speaker at his next civic forum.
“My Favorite Husband” was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) by Isabel Scott Rorick, which had previously been adapted into the film Are Husbands Necessary? (1942). “My Favorite Husband” was first broadcast as a one-time special on July 5, 1948. Lucille Ball and Lee Bowman played the characters of Liz and George Cugat, and a positive response to this broadcast convinced CBS to launch “My Favorite Husband” as a series. Bowman was not available Richard Denning was cast as George. On January 7, 1949, confusion with bandleader Xavier Cugat prompted a name change to Cooper. On this same episode Jell-O became its sponsor. A total of 124 episodes of the program aired from July 23, 1948 through March 31, 1951. After about ten episodes had been written, writers Fox and Davenport departed and three new writers took over – Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and head writer/producer Jess Oppenheimer. In March 1949 Gale Gordon took over the existing role of George’s boss, Rudolph Atterbury, and Bea Benadaret was added as his wife, Iris. CBS brought “My Favorite Husband” to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper. The television version ran two-and-a-half seasons, from September 1953 through December 1955, running concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” It was produced live at CBS Television City for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season filmed (ironically) at Desilu and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown.
REGULAR CAST
Lucille Ball (Liz Cooper) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon.
Richard Denning (George Cooper) was born as Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger Jr., in Poughkeepsie, New York. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles. Plans called for him to take over his father’s garment manufacturing business, but he developed an interest in acting. Denning enlisted in the US Navy during World War II. He is best known for his roles in various science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Although he teamed with Lucille Ball on radio in “My Favorite Husband,” the two never acted together on screen. While “I Love Lucy” was on the air, he was seen on another CBS TV series, “Mr. & Mrs. North.” From 1968 to 1980 he played the Governor on “Hawaii 5-0″, his final role. He died in 1998 at age 84.
Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) was also later seen on “I Love Lucy.” She first played Mrs. Pomerantz (above right), a member of the surprise investigating committee for the Society Matrons League in “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25), as one of the member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League in “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3), and also played a nurse when “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (ILL S2;E16). She died in 1996 at the age of 96.
Bob LeMond (Announcer) also served as the announcer for the pilot episode of “I Love Lucy”. When the long-lost pilot was finally discovered in 1990, a few moments of the opening narration were damaged and lost, so LeMond – fifty years later – recreated the narration for the CBS special and subsequent DVD release.
Gale Gordon (Rudolph Atterbury) and Bea Benadaret (Iris Atterbury) had not yet joined the cast as regular characters.
GUEST CAST
Frank Nelson (Mr. Barton) was born on May 6, 1911 (three months before Lucille Ball) in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He started working as a radio announcer at the age of 15. He later appeared on such popular radio shows as “The Great Gildersleeve,” “Burns and Allen,” and “Fibber McGee & Molly”. This is one of his 11 performances on “My Favorite Husband.” On “I Love Lucy” he holds the distinction of being the only actor to play two recurring roles: Freddie Fillmore and Ralph Ramsey, as well as six one-off characters, including the frazzled train conductor in “The Great Train Robbery” (ILL S5;E5), a character he repeated on “The Lucy Show.” Aside from Lucille Ball, Nelson is perhaps most associated with Jack Benny and was a fifteen-year regular on his radio and television programs.
Steve Allen (Scott Campbell, Expert on Alaska) was a talk show and variety host as well as a published composer. Although he was seen with Lucille Ball on awards and quiz shows, their first time acting together on screen didn’t come until 1978′s “Lucy Calls The President”. In 1980, Ball appeared on the premiere of “The Steve Allen Comedy Hour”. He died in 2000 at age 78.
TRIVIA: Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll Jr. were writers for the Steve Allen radio show and left that job to write for “My Favorite Husband.” They paid Allen to write his own show one week so they could focus on creating a script submission for “My Favorite Husband.”
EPISODE
ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers tonight, they’ve settled down for a quiet evening at home. Liz has discovered an intelligence quiz in a magazine, but she’s having George’s attention, because he is lost in a gripping, blood-curdling murder mystery.”
George is reading “The Mummy’s Tummy” but Liz spoils the ending to get his attention. George can’t seem to answer any of the IQ questions correctly.
Q: “What is the name for the chemical formula H2S04?”
A: Sulfuric Acid
Q: “What does it say on the lid of a United States mailbox?”
A: Pull Down
Q: “For what was Ma Ferguson noted?”
A: The first woman Governor of Texas
George decides to quiz Liz, asking her a few questions.
Q: “What is the poop deck of the ship?”
Liz’s Answer: “The deck where the sailor’s rest when they’re pooped.”
Real Answer: “A raised portion of the rear deck.”
Q: “Does sound travel faster or slower in water than it does in air?”
Liz’s Answer: “Next question.”
Q: “Chicle is the main ingredient in chewing gum. Where is the largest deposit found?”
Liz’s Answer: “Under theatre seats.”
Liz realizes that they aren’t very smart and should probably do something about it. Dr. Guilfoyle, author of the quiz, suggests that a score under 50 needs to be addressed.
Liz is going to send for his book “How To Improve Yourself.”
LIZ: “Look at the people who recommend this book: Truman and Goldwyn.”
GEORGE: “Harry Truman and Sam Goldwyn?”
LIZ: “No, Sam Truman and Harry Goldwyn!”
Harry Truman (1884-1972) was the 33rd president of the United States from 1945 to 1953, succeeding Franklin D. Roosevelt after his death. He implemented the Marshall Plan to rebuild the economy of Western Europe, and established the Truman Doctrine and NATO. Sam Goldwyn (1879 -1974) was a film producer best known as the founder of several motion picture studios in Hollywood.
A few days later, the book has arrived and Katie the Maid notices Liz is engrossed in it. Liz states that the Doctor has three rules to impress people:
Learn Ten New Words a Day
Be a Good Listener
Have One Subject Down Cold So You Can Steer The Conversation Around To It
Liz’s has already got her ten new words and has put them in a sentence.
LIZ: “By assiduous application, I have promulgated a plethora of altruistic ubiquity and lugubrious perspicacity.”
The telephone rings, it is George telling Liz he is bringing home an important person named Mr. Barton, to dinner.
LIZ: “How important is he, George? Sirloin, T-bone, meatloaf, or hash?”
GEORGE: “Strictly sirloin.”
George explains that Mr. Barton is the one who picks the speakers for the open forums in town. George wants to get picked to be one of the first speakers so he can impress his boss, Mr. Atterbury, and possibly land a raise. George warns Liz to be herself and not try to impress him.
Liz decides to enact rule #3 and cracks open an encyclopedia to pick the subject. Much to her surprise, the subject she randomly picks is bees!
Walking up to the house that evening, Mr. Barton (Frank Nelson) confides in George that he is looking forward to meeting a simple housewife, since in his line of work the women are always trying too hard to impress him with their intellect.
George introduces Liz to Mr. Barton, who immediately notices that her vocabulary is amped up. Unfortunately, Liz is using the wrong words most of the time, saying ‘plethora’ for ‘pleasure’ and ‘diversify yourself’ for ‘divert yourself.’
George assures a nervous Mr. Barton that Liz is ‘just an old fashioned girl’.
MR. BARTON: “Sounds like she’s had too many Old- Fashioneds!”
An Old Fashioned is a cocktail made by mixing sugar with bitters and water, adding whiskey or brandy, and garnishing with orange zest and a cocktail cherry. It is traditionally served in a special glass called an Old Fashioned glass. A variation on this wordplay was used on “I Love Lucy” in “Million Dollar Idea” (ILL S3;E13) in 1954 when Lucy (disguised as an average housewife selected at random) describes the taste of Aunt Martha’s Old Fashioned Salad Dressing to deliberately encourage buyers to cancel.
LUCY: “Looks like Aunt Martha had too many Old-Fashioneds!”
In the kitchen, George tells Liz to stop using fancy words, so Liz moves on to rule #3 - her special subject: bees! She no sooner starts buzzing about bees when she is chided by George.
GEORGE (sternly aside): “Liz! Haven’t you forgotten? Mr. Barton’s forum!”
LIZ: “Well, I’m for ‘em, too!”
Coincidentally, Lucille Ball was one of several actors known as ‘Queen of the ‘B’s’ - which referred to ‘B’ pictures - films that were done quickly, on a budget, with lesser-known actors. In 1963′s “Lucy’s Barbershop Quartet” (TLS S1;E19) Lucy suggests they sing about bees!
Mr. Barton tells George he is going to sponsor a Shakespearean Company, if they can convince the City Council to fund them.
LIZ: “To bee or not to bee!”
"To be, or not to be" is the opening of a soliloquy by Prince Hamlet in William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1. In the speech, Hamlet contemplates death and suicide. It is one of the most quoted phrases in all of literature. To Be or Not to Be is a also the title of a 1942 film starring Lucille Ball’s good friend Carole Lombard and Jack Benny, who later became her next door neighbor. The plot concerns a troupe of actors in Nazi-occupied Poland. The film was released one month after Lombard was killed in an airplane crash.
George drags Liz into the hall again, warning her to stop talking about bees! After telling him to “mind his own beeswax”, Liz reluctantly agrees just to listen attentively and agree with everything Mr. Barton says. This works so well, that Mr. Barton barely acknowledges George, but only talks to Liz! He is so impressed by Liz, he offers to have her on the panel of their very first forum on Saturday night! She instantly agrees!
Two days later she learns that the forum’s topic is “the effect of jet propulsion and supersonic flight on the future of aviation.” But Liz is un-phased. She has been preparing by buying a new dress, which she tells George has ‘a dive bomb neckline.’
George and Liz role play to prepare for the forum. Against George’s advice, Liz intends to talk about the Wright Brothers!
Orville and Wilbur Wright were inventors and pioneers of aviation. In 1903 the Wright brothers achieved the first powered, sustained and controlled airplane flight; they surpassed their own milestone two years later when they built and flew the first fully practical airplane.
At the meeting that night, Mr. Barton announces to the assembled crowd that their aviation expert, Colonel Davis, could not make it.
MR. BARTON: “He started her from Los Angeles, but he got slightly mixed up in a snowstorm and has just cabled us from Bombay, India.”
Bombay, India is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It was formerly renamed Mumbai in 1995 to better reflect the city’s roots and cut ties with its British origins. Coincidentally, a few months after this broadcast, the 1942 film Bombay Clipper was re-released. Although the Lucy gang never traveled to Bombay, it was mentioned in 1955′s “The Hedda Hopper Story” (ILL S4;E21) when everyone was looking for Mrs. McGillicuddy.
RICKY (Into phone): “Do you have any flights numbered 930? You do? Where's it coming in from? Bombay?”
LUCY: “Bombay?”
RICKY: “Well knowing your mother... No, even she wouldn't fly from New York to Los Angeles by way of India.”
Instead, Mr. Barton announces that the guest speaker is a famous authority on Alaska, Mr. Scott Campbell (Steve Allen). Unfortunately, Liz knows nothing about Alaska - so she starts to talk about the Wright Brothers instead!
In 1949 Alaska was not yet one of the United States, but was a US territory. The statehood movement gained its first real momentum in 1946 and Alaska was officially proclaimed a state on January 3, 1959. To mark this event, Desilu created a special episode of “The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse” in which the Ricardos and Mertzes travel to Nome to cash in on a land deal, although no actual filming was done in the 49th state.
In 1952’s “Lucy Gets Ricky on the Radio” (ILL S1;E32) Lucy presciently (but incorrectly) answers the question “What was the last state to be admitted to the union?” by saying Alaska. At the time, the correct answer to the question was Arizona, admitted on Valentine’s Day 1912.
MR. BARTON: “No! When are you going to get to Alaska?”
LIZ: “Let me get the plane invented and I’ll fly up there!”
With nothing else to talk about, Liz starts to talk about bees, but Mr. Barton quickly cuts her off and turns the podium over to Mr. Campbell, who launches into a serious speech about the welfare of the children of Alaska. He suddenly turns to Liz and asks “Who is responsible for these children, Mrs. Cooper?”
LIZ: “You really want me to answer that? Wilbur and Orville Wright!”
In the bedtime tag, it is 4 o’clock in the morning and Liz is eating crackers in bed. Wrestling them away from her, George gets cracker crumbs all over the bed. A few seconds later, Liz is eating an apple! George takes it from her. He hears her eating a third time and goes to grab whatever it is away from her.
GEORGE: “Whoah! What was that!”
LIZ: “A glass of cold milk. Goodnight, George.”
End of Episode
Bob LeMond reminds listeners that Lucille Ball will soon be seen in the Paramount Picture Sorrowful Jones.
#My Favorite Husband#Lucille Ball#Richard Denning#Bob Lemond#Ruth Perrott#Sorrowful Jones#Frank Nelson#Steve Allen#Alaska#Bombay#The Wright Brothers#Sam Goldwyn#Harry Truman#I Love Lucy#Radio#CBS#Bombay Clipper#To Be or Not To Be#Bees#Old Fashioneds
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Death of a King
Death of a King
by chlovrs
Hinata Shouyou was a complete fanboy for the Volleyball player Kageyama Tobio. He watched all of his games in middle school and high school, watched him play on T.V. and he had nearly every issue of sports magazine the man had featured in.
He was practically a Kageyama encyclopedia.
So you can imagine Hinata's horror when Kageyama mysteriously disappears from the world of Volleyball and is suddenly outside his dorm building with the keys to the apartment next door.
Words: 2798, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English
Fandoms: Haikyuu!!
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Categories: M/M
Characters: Hinata Shouyou, Kageyama Tobio, Shimizu Kiyoko, Oikawa Tooru, Iwaizumi Hajime, Ukai Ikkei, Takeda Ittetsu, Kuroo Tetsurou, Kozume Kenma
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio
Additional Tags: Fanboy Hinata, Pro Volleyball Player Kageyama Tobio, pinning, University AU, Time Skips, Aged-Up Character(s), Middle School Hinata Shouyou flashbacks, Hinata Shouyou is shy, Awkward Kageyama Tobio, Depressed Kageyama Tobio, Dorms, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Drinking & Talking, Injured Kageyama Tobio, Hinata Shouyou is Sunshine, Hinata Shouyou In Denial, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Eventual Smut, Eventual Romance, Nobody is Dead
Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26822575
#AO3 Feed#FanFiction#AO3 Kagehina#♥#Kagehina#Haikyuu#College AU#Mental Illness#Angst#Fluff#A:Chlovrs
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From Bakeneko to Bakemonogatari: The Secret History of Catgirls
It’s a question society has asked for ages: what came first, the cat or the girl?
The catgirl is one of the most resilient images in anime today. However, even the term “catgirl” is a little vague. Close your eyes and try to imagine what that word actually means. Did you think of a girl, but with cat ears? Did she have a tail? Does she have a verbal tic? Was she — by some mystical, scientific, or by some other supernatural occurrence — able to transform into an actual cat? If you said yes or no to any of those questions, are we still talking about the same kind of “catgirl”?
The answer is no one really knows. But that hasn’t stopped people from trying to investigate the origins of this immensely popular character type. Does such a thing as "the first catgirl" truly even exist?
Black Hanekawa as she appears in Nekomonogatari
What We Talk About When We Talk About Catgirls
Broadly speaking, characters with animal ears are described as kemonomimi, which literally means animal ears. What about catgirl etymology? As expected, characters with cat ears are described as nekomimi, aka cat ears. The term nekomusume (cat girl or daughter, literally) has also been used, which is also notably the name of the character Neko-Musume from Shigeru Mizuki’s popular 1960s supernatural manga GeGeGe no Kitarō. Ralph F. McCarthy, the first to translate Kitarō in a bilingual edition published by Kodansha in 2002, localized this name as “Catchick.” This is all to say, the invented euphemism “catgirl” is just one of many used to describe the same thing: a cat-like girl who may or may not claw your eyes out with a mischievous smirk.
Mizuki's Neko-Musume is based on the bakeneko, an evil cat spirit who is sometimes able to change between human and feline form. Folklorist Matthew Meyer describes bakeneko as beginning their lives as regular house cats, but later accumulating more human-like traits as they mature. In many stories, they are depicted as lapping up the blood of murder victims, thereby granting them supernatural powers. Of course, they aren’t to be mistaken with nekomata — twin-tailed cat spirits, like Yōkai Watch’s Jibanyan. Much like the rest of Mizuki’s yōkai characters inspired by Japan’s supernatural folklore, Mizuki’s bakeneko are the byproduct of creative license. Neko-Musume doesn’t have cat ears like we might expect them today, but technically she fits the bill for a supernatural entity. Like modern-day big-eyed catgirls, your mileage may vary.
Detail from Utagawa Kuniyoshi's nekozuka print
Utagawa Kuniyoshi, a woodblock artist born in 1798, is well-known for his many cat-centric prints. One of his most renowned projects was a series of prints depicting the 1827 kabuki drama, Traveling Alone to the Fifty-three Stations. In 1852, Kuniyoshi printed a depiction of actor Onoe Kikugorō III as one of the play’s most memorable characters, the nekozuka, a cat monster living in Okazaki assuming the form of a human woman. Kuniyoshi draws this specter with two very noticeable cat ears — a statement that this is a suspicious supernatural entity. This same motif reoccurs in other Kuniyoshi works, noticeably a woodblock triptych depicting the same actor as a cat creature. Again, those notorious ears appear.
Onoe Kikugorō III illustrated by artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi
Is Kuniyoshi’s flair for fantastic flourish the missing link? The secret origin of all catgirls who ever dared meow in the modern age? Well, it’s a little more complicated than that.
Will the Real Catgirls Please Stand Up?
The bakeneko is but just one entry in Japanese folklore’s long love affair with cats. In contemporary media, the concept of a cat-influenced woman is seen in many horror films. In an entry on bakeneko for The Encyclopedia of Japanese Horror Films, scholar Michael Crandol writes: "Bakeneko tales were the single most popular subject of Japanese horror films from the dawn of cinema through the 1960s, with more than sixty such pictures released by 1970.” With films as early as 1938’s The Ghost Cat and The Mysterious Shamisen, to post-war modern classics like 1968’s Kuroneko, the bakeneko sub-genre in Japanese horror is a testament to its ubiquity. Not to mention the allure of mysterious intrigue.
Kaneto Shindo's Kuroneko asks the universal question: will my cat eat me when I die?
From this perspective, the origins of catgirls seem quite hairy. In fact, looking solely through the lens of the traditional bakeneko narrative is extremely limiting. Surely they all aren’t evil women possessed by vengeful spirits? So what else?
In May 2019, independent cartoonist Keiichi Tanaka posted a thread on Twitter asking about the possible origins of the catgirl design proper:
猫耳の元祖って『綿の国星』？
人間の顔で頭の上に猫の耳、このデザインってそれ以前にあった？
— はぁとふる倍国土 (@keiichisennsei) May 16, 2019
Among the replies included Osamu Tezuka’s character Hecate, a shape-shifting young witch who transforms into a half-humanoid, half-cat creature from the 1950s manga Princess Knight. Others mention Kuniyoshi’s cat-eared nekozuka woodblock prints, alongside the introduction of the classic Playboy Bunny costume in Japan. At first, it seems like Yumiko Ōshima’s manga Star of Cottonland may be the point of origin, but perhaps it’s not so easy to pin down. Did Tezuka, like so many innovations in early anime and manga, do it first? Are catgirls perhaps an underappreciated relic of the Edō period? What about classic '80s shōjo manga?
Feline magic in Tezuka's Princess Knight
Like many great debates in art history, the conclusion is ambiguous. Some might say Kuniyoshi unintentionally invented “catgirls” in the 19th century. Others may say Tezuka refined the concept, but Ōshima popularized the idea of cat ears on cute girls. If we examine catgirls strictly through the lens of anime and manga, the ambiguity and debate regarding "origins" become less of a fuzzy headache. Rather, we can re-frame the question: What works possibly helped catgirls bloom into the anime and manga-centric phenomenon we know and love today?
Chibi Neko, a cat who believes she is a girl
Ōshima’s Star of Cottonland was serialized in shōjo magazine LaLa from 1978 to 1987. The protagonist, Chibi Neko, is a kitten who views herself as a little girl. Because of this, the story is illustrated from her perspective and depicts her as human, with the caveat of having cat ears. In her 1995 book, Phänomen Manga: Comic-Kultur in Japan, scholar Jaqueline Berndt points to Ōshima being the possible originator of this now massively popular trope. In 1984, Star of Cottonland was adapted into OVA by Mushi Production, the animation studio famously known for adapting many of Tezuka’s major works.
Meanwhile, another OVA debuted in 1984: Bagi, the Monster of Mighty Nature. This was an original production written by Tezuka himself in response to gene recombination research approval by the Japanese government. Most famously, it featured an anthropomorphic feline woman named Bagi, who is undeniably more cat than girl. Bagi attempts to gain vengeance on humanity while simultaneously forging a troubled relationship with the action-hero male protagonist. While the Star of Cottonland OVA saw a limited home release, Bagi was broadcasted via the Nippon Television Network as a TV special.
Twin cyberpunk catgirls from Masamune's Dominion
Star of Cottonland and Bagi couldn’t be more thematically different, nonetheless, they both depend on catgirls for their worldbuilding. Masamune Shirow’s 1985 science-fiction manga, Dominion, follows a similar trend with its portrayal of android catgirls in a gritty cyberpunk setting. Adapted into a 1988 OVA series, Dominion: Tank Police features two puma twins, Anna and Uni, catgirls created as sentient love dolls. With their wild hair and overtly sexualized design, they undoubtedly have more in common with Tezuka’s violent Bagi than Ōshima’s initial cat-eared girls. They are, for lack of a better word, an otaku’s modern catgirl with their feral bloodthirst intact.
A Catgirl for All Seasons
A feature from Kadokawa’s Davinci News’ anime department titled "We Investigated ‘Why Are Nekomimi Girls So Cute’” draws attention to the 2013 Fall anime season. Namely, ear and tail-equipped characters from Outbreak Company and Nekomonogatari. What’s the appeal of animal-eared girls, where did they come from, and why are they so seemingly trendy now? Again, Kuniyoshi’s fearsome kabuki portraits are mentioned, however with an important caveat: Kuniyoshi's cat ears were meant to strike fear, not inspire charm. The same could be said for the post-war boom in bakeneko films and their scream queen actresses. The article’s author even suggests that the prominence of the Playboy Bunny outfit, with its appeal to the uppercrust of society and cute tail, might’ve also added to a flourishing nekomimi cosplay craze. At some point, the strangeness of the concept became secondary to cute novelty.
Koyomi confronts the Sawari Neko possessing Hanekawa
This observation points out an important contemporary trend: ornamental catgirls, aka eyecandy, verus catgirls with a narrative purpose. Peak catgirl is somehow balancing both acts. Characters like Bakemonogatari’s Tsubasa Hanekawa — a high schooler who is possessed by the Sawari Neko spirit — unintentionally create the night-prowling, cat-eared alter-ego named “Black Hanekawa.” Black Hanekawa may perhaps be the modern mash-up of bakeneko tradition and otaku catgirl-ness we've long awaited. She speaks in cat-puns, obviously not human, and is most importantly a fearsome supernatural nuance. But on the flip-side, Black Hanekawa is everything we expect from the otaku’s catgirl: ears on top of her head, an eccentric personality, and a desire to exaggerate those feline quirks whenever possible for cuteness' sake.
ฅ(*ΦωΦ*)ฅ
The modern catgirl’s sensibility is to be a girl first, cat second. While hints of this archetype is seen in Shirow’s 1980s catgirl love androids, early 2000s series like Di Gi Charat and Tokyo Mew Mew have only further pushed this specific everyday flavor of catgirl agenda. Especially considering the infectious prevalence of mascot characters like Dejiko, a chibified catgirl with lucky cat bells on character goods stores across Akihabara. It’s no wonder they’ve effectively lost all their unncanniness. But besides the cultural context — there’s no real reason why cat ears just can’t be cute in themselves.
Dejiko and company promoting a GAMERS character goods store in Akihabara
Nowadays, you don’t have to look very hard to find a cat-eared character. Series like Re:Zero famously feature characters like Felix, whose cat-like qualities are part of the lore. Nintendo series like Fire Emblem have even newly added a “beast” race of animal-eared characters. Not to mention the massive popularity of franchises like Strike Witches and Kemono Friends in recent years, catgirls undoubtedly draw massively passionate fanbases. No matter where they came from, catgirls in all shapes and sizes, clawed, and de-clawed, have never stopped turning heads. The nyapocalypse is here to stay, fur-real.
Do you have a favorite catgirl of all time? Let us knyaow in the comments below!
Blake P. is a weekly columnist for Crunchyroll Features. He thinks Cats (the musical) deserves a proper anime adaptation. His twitter is @_dispossessed. His bylines include Fanbyte, VRV, Unwinnable, and more.
Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!
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Fantastic Four Vol 1 #223
Tues Apr 27 2020
[09:18 PM] Wack'd: And so the Four, plus Agatha and Gabriel, are off in the Pogo Plane to New Salem, in order to undo Nicholas Scratch's possession of Franklin.
[09:19 PM] Wack'd: Who?! Who calls you that?!
[09:19 PM] Bocaj: His barber
[09:19 PM] Umbramatic: the narrator apparently
[09:20 PM] Wack'd: There are other "here's how the crew is doing" panels but they're all roughly what you'd expect. Ben angry, Sue determined, Reed thinking, Agatha contemplating fate
[09:21 PM] Bocaj: Shake it up, the fantastic four
[09:21 PM] Wack'd: Johnny musing on how he's never seen Reed and Sue this intense before besides the thirteen other times he's never seen them this intense before
[09:21 PM] Bocaj: Pfft
[09:22 PM] Wack'd: Reed and Sue have a moment where Sue gets kinda weepy and Reed reassures her that he'll do everything he can
[09:23 PM] Bocaj: Shake it up, the fantastic four book
[09:24 PM] Wack'd: How have these fuckers not been consigned to the dustbin of history already
[09:24 PM] maxwellelvis: Because Scratch hasn't yet.
[09:25 PM] Wack'd: Even if I concede there are some cool designs, which...eh?... this is the first sign of personality they've exhibited in like three storylines
[09:25 PM] Umbramatic: i'm a sucker for nagas but i dunno how to feel about the snake arms
[09:25 PM] maxwellelvis: Gazelle looks a little less Marge Simpson-y this time.
[09:26 PM] Wack'd: The lack of yellow skin helps
[09:26 PM] Wack'd: Anyway Nick possesses the lion dude and recruits them back into his dark army
[09:27 PM] Wack'd: And reveals his master plan, which is to bring back the...essence???...of the Dark Realm to torment humanity
[09:27 PM] maxwellelvis: I too am puzzled at how many reappearances these glorified minibosses are getting.
[09:27 PM] Bocaj: That’s how I feel about zodiac
[09:27 PM] Bocaj: In avengers
[09:28 PM] Wack'd: I think seven is too many distinct henchpeople for a villain to have, also, especially in a team book and especially if they're always gonna be a group
[09:28 PM] Wack'd: Like there's so much wacky happening here but it just kind of cancels out back to boring
[09:28 PM] maxwellelvis: And I do mean glorified because the law of conservation of ninjutsu means they should not have handled the Four as easily as they have in the past.
[09:29 PM] Aleph Null: @Wack'd the seven deadly sins?
[09:29 PM] Wack'd: The Salem Seven
[09:29 PM] maxwellelvis: I could understand that if they had to fight them all one at a time in a series of progressing battles up a tower, but
[09:29 PM] Wack'd: Anyway Nick possesses the folks guarding the Seven's cell and lets them out
[09:30 PM] Bocaj: I could get behind a shonen style tower climb mini boss squad fight
[09:30 PM] Wack'd: Dude seems to be getting a lot of mileage out of possession and it's making me wonder why he even needs a physical form? Though I guess that's not really his goal since he's doing the whole "release the essence of the Dark Realm" thing
[09:30 PM] Wack'd: Still though he doesn't seem particularly weaker in this form than he did on earth. He might as well have never been banished at all
[09:31 PM] Bocaj: You had one job with several distinct tasks under it, Agatha!
[09:31 PM] Wack'd: The Seven, now free, decide they have some free time before the plot kicks in and decide to torture some civilians for shits and giggles
[09:32 PM] Wack'd: Really just Nick used to establish what everybody's shtick is with some actual breathing room, which, y'know, finally, but one row of panels each is not a lot
[09:33 PM] Wack'd: Vakume (the solid grey one) makes a tornado that sucks air out of everyone's lungs
[09:33 PM] Aleph Null: that doesn't sound right but i don't know enough about wind physics to say otherwise
[09:33 PM] Wack'd: It's magic, they don't have to explain it
[09:33 PM] Aleph Null: ...then why is the tornado necessary? why not just cast a fuck you no breathing spell?
[09:33 PM] maxwellelvis: STYLE
[09:33 PM] Wack'd: Looks cool
[09:33 PM] Wack'd: But not cool enough to screencap
[09:33 PM] Wack'd: Vertigo (the Pam Grier one) uh...gives everyone vertigo
[09:34 PM] Bocaj: Ah like Zaheer
[09:34 PM] Wack'd: Actually I guess that's it because we cut back to the Four
[09:36 PM] Wack'd: This is a perfectly prefunctionary, even good, "Ben knows what it's like to be othered" speech, but I'm losing it at it being deployed in defense of Baby's First Dungeons & Dragons Character
[09:38 PM] Wack'd: And I can make that joke because my first Dungeons & Dragons character, before orc vampire and dragonborn stage magician, was in fact a mysterious loner with strange powers who keeps to the shadows. I know from whence I speak
[09:38 PM] Umbramatic: pffft
[09:38 PM] Umbramatic: i don't think mine was that weird
[09:38 PM] Wack'd: I am deliberately and specifically not saying it's weird
[09:38 PM] Wack'd: It is super boring
[09:39 PM] Bocaj: I’ve been thinking the whole time
[09:39 PM] Bocaj: Is this just nick fury doing Dresden larp?
[09:39 PM] Wack'd: It is, I assume, everyone's first Dungeons & Dragons character
[09:41 PM] Wack'd: Anyway I looked up Gabriel--sorry, *Devil Hunter*--to see if I should bother caring about him. Turns out he's not a new character, but the lead in a short-lived magazine-format book from the mid-70s called *Haunt of Horror*.
[09:41 PM] maxwellelvis: I went with Eberk, because clerics were busted as shit in 3.5e
[09:41 PM] Wack'd: Written by--and you might wanna sit down for this--Doug Moench.
[09:42 PM] Bocaj: Ha
[09:42 PM] maxwellelvis: No. Say it ain't so.
[09:42 PM] Mousa The 14: Of course
[09:43 PM] Wack'd: These two Fantastic Four issues are his first appearances since then, and his last for twelve years before he briefly resurfaces as a recurring Hellstorm supporting character in the early 90s.
[09:44 PM] Umbramatic: wow
[09:44 PM] Mousa The 14: “I mean, we have the IP, we may as well use him!” “Yeah, but why tho?”
[09:44 PM] Wack'd: He has since the only been seen in Marvel encyclopedias.
[09:44 PM] Umbramatic: welp
[09:45 PM] Bocaj: I still think he’s larp Nick Fury
[09:45 PM] Wack'd: Fair
[09:46 PM] Wack'd: Anyway, the team arrives in New Salem, where Scratch reappears inside Franklin to say more mean stuff.
[09:46 PM] Wack'd: I would assume he's been quiet because he's been busy possessing loads of other people, but no, Gabriel is important
[09:47 PM] Wack'd: Johnny then feels bad for writing him off as a moody loner cliché since he was actually doing shit apparently
[09:47 PM] Mousa The 14: Good grief, what a joke
[09:48 PM] maxwellelvis: Why's he EMOTING so hard in that second panel?
[09:50 PM] Wack'd: (Oh if anyone cares the red haired lady who placed the cryptic phone call is also from Haunt of Horrors and also appears in Hellstorm's 90s book. She dies)
[09:50 PM] Mousa The 14: As women do apparently
[09:50 PM] Wack'd: Back to the story at hand. It is time for a fight scene
[09:51 PM] Wack'd: And then a capture scene
[09:51 PM] Wack'd: It's a good thing this book has so much dumb minutia in it or I woulda been done half an hour ago
[09:52 PM] Wack'd: So the team is placed on an alter and Franklin's powers are used to bring forth the Dark Realm
[09:53 PM] Aleph Null: this is a fantastic four comic right?
[09:53 PM] Aleph Null: just checking
[09:53 PM] Wack'd: Yeah but this is not terribly off spec for them
[09:53 PM] maxwellelvis: Yes
[09:54 PM] maxwellelvis: Also we were still in the middle of the Satanic Panic at the time.
[09:54 PM] Wack'd: Fantastic Four doesn't really have a consistent tone or manner of threat. They're from the 60s, they'll do whatever
[09:55 PM] Wack'd: Gabriel and Agatha use their combined power to turn the Four into a literal love bomb to defeat Nick Scratch's hate
[09:56 PM] Aleph Null: My Little Superheroes: Friendship Is Magic
[09:57 PM] Wack'd: This is a nice scene but I'd be a lot more convinced if Nick Scratch didn't try to murder Agatha gruesomely every previous time he appeared
[09:58 PM] Wack'd:
Ben: That wuz the easiest fight we ever had...and it wuz the best weapon we coulda used.
[09:59 PM] maxwellelvis: "We contributed the bare minimum to our own story!"
[09:59 PM] Wack'd:
Agatha: Nicholas, you must be punished...severely. I hav erred on the sign of leniency in the past.
[09:59 PM] Wack'd: agatha you banished him to a nightmare dimension but okay
[09:59 PM] Mousa The 14: Yeah but she didn’t kill him
[10:00 PM] Mousa The 14: They’re magic people, nightmare dimension is really more if a time out for ‘em
[10:00 PM] Wack'd: Honestly the "Dark Realm" was originally called "the World Beyond Worlds"
[10:00 PM] Wack'd: So I assumed it was a Yu-Gi-Oh "Shadow Realm" thing until this story
[10:01 PM] Wack'd: And so Nicholas' punishment is to become like the humans he so despised
[10:02 PM] Wack'd: And Agatha decides to stay behind to be an ambassador to her people on behalf of non-magic folks to maybe cut down on future genocide attempts
[10:03 PM] Wack'd:
[10:03 PM] Bocaj: Awwwww.....www??
[10:04 PM] Wack'd: Even as the modern age creeps closer, silent panels are still kind of a rarity
[10:04 PM] Wack'd: It's smart to deploy one here
[10:04 PM] maxwellelvis: "Hey, how 'bout a little sugar for Gabriel?"
[10:04 PM] Umbramatic: awwww
[10:05 PM] Wack'd: He just kinda...vanishes
[10:05 PM] Wack'd: Reed assures us he probably has his own way home
[10:05 PM] maxwellelvis: He doesn't need the company of people with no sugar for him.
[10:05 PM] Bocaj: Pfft
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OLD VS. NEW
In the previous post, I show a 1996 issue Mountain Astrologer Magazine that I wrote in. I was just looking through it. The Editorial section in the front of the issue has a debate between Rob Hand and David Solte. Solte is probably best known for his work with the Scorpio Rising horoscope of the United States and Rob, astrology's living encyclopedia, is a stranger to no one in astrology.
Hand wrote in because he was insulted by Solte's reference to the ancient, pre-trans-Saturn planets discoveries when astrology was 101% predictive. It basically comes down to Hand trashing humanistic astrology and Solte trashing the idea that because it was old and came first that it is better.
No matter what it is, music, medicine, technology, travel, entertainment, agriculture....no matter what it is, it changes. It evolves. Everything in life changes. If someone tried to put together a group like The Beatles, no label would sign them today. There is no Leave It to Beaver on TV. No one will watch it. If you want to go to another country across the ocean, you fly now unless you just want to go via ship. There was a time when all Black people in America were slaves but you had one become President of the country. Things change. Things evolve. It is a universal law.
When the Babylonians did what they did in developing astrology, life was a constant pandemic. Life was mostly an experience of suffering. If you even caught a cold you could die. Life expectancy was age 45 or so. It was always like what we are expetiencing with Corona but on steroids. That's the enviornment and climate that astrology originated in so astrology was given a perspective based on that. There was no such thing as an individual. You were defined by what your tribe did, not what you did. "You" was synonymous with "tribe." There was nothing else to talk about other than when things are going to be good or bad. That was then.
This is now. If the sole purpose of an astrologer was to "tell the future," and it worked consistently, every astrologer would live a flawless life. That is FAR from the case in reality as I know of NAME astrologers who experienced loss of home, a horror marriage and more. Planets don't make anyone do anything. People make themselves do things based on what they think their needs are. The more a person is in tune with Self, the more likely they are to make choices and decisions that are correct for them and bring fulfillment. That's what makes the future, not a planet. The horoscope is a guide, like an MRI but like the MRI didn't cause the torn ACL, the horoscope doesn't cause life events.
This never-ending trashing of the ancient versus psychological approaches to astrology reminds me of talking to a great-grandmother, someone born in 1916. They have this adherance to life as it was early-on. In fact, most humans have that habit. Look at what has happened with the confederate flag. You have people who are totally pissed because it has lost its presence. On the day following the announcement that the Washington football team was getting rid of their name, I listened to sports talk in DC. Over half the audience were bitching for no other reason than "Redskins" is the name tgey've known all along.
Whatever exposure came first in life is stuck to forever like glue. This is an idea that is often at the root of racism. An innocent child is raised in an environment that trashes another culture or it can be the parents who mold them. So, they are 65 years old still trashing that other culture. I see it in music all the time where people bitch about the music happening today because it's not like what they heard from ages 5 to 30. Well, that's what your parents said about the music YOU are bitching about.My father used to say that Earth Wind & Fire were "terrible." When he grew up, Cab Calloway and that kind of thing was very popular, so, it's supposed to just stay with Cab Calloway forever? I remember being in Arkansas in 2007. There was a 5 square mile stretch where every yard had an Obama puppet with a noose around its neck. The person I was with, who was raised there, moved to Los Angeles when he waa 20. After being in Los Angeles for five years, he went back home and couldn't relate to anything. That's growth. Growth is wonderful. Staying the same closes possibilities.
Why not toss cell phones, TV's, all forms of transportation aside from horses, electricity, medical developments, medical developments, opticians, dentists, etc. None of that stuff was happening when the Babylonians were working magic with the beginnings of astrology. I don't understand the adherance to something old when the very nature of everything in the universe that astrology is based on changes.
If astrology is specifically about predicting the future, who was the astrologer in 2019, 18, or 17 who said, "In 2020, there will be a dangerous pandemic mixed with very strong social issues? No, AFTER THE FACT, everyone was a genius....Saturn-Pluto blah blah. There is a difference between saying, "tomorrow, there is a strong likelihood of physical danger while driving or operating machinery" versus saying, the day after, "he was knocked unconscious because a car ran through the intersection and ignored a red light." At UAC in 2016, 70% of the astrologers involved got the Clinton-Trump election wrong. Give me a break with this predicting the future stuff. A horoscopecisn't a crystal ball.
Things have evolved. You have to base astrological measurements on the life a person is living, not some standard rule out of a book that tells you planets determine what you will eat for dinner on September 2nd. A popular musician with a Grammy nomination has transiting Neptune coming to the Midheaven. A drug dealer has the same. Based on that reality, the musician is likely to be rewarded (the late Natalie Cole won seven Grammy awards with transiting Neptune on her Midheaven) and perhaps the dealer has an interaction with the law that ends unfavorably. It's not one standard thing for everyone. It's not a B.C. year. The place that people have in the world today bears no resemblance to what the Babylonians had so you really can't orient astrology that same way.
In discussing hard aspects between Saturn and Uranus, Noel Tyl used to say that it's a battle between old and new and the new always wins in the end. Things don't go backwards in life and astrology certainly shouldn't trash today because yesterday came first.
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