What is Best in Life

I’ve been a little unsure about what to do with the Infrequently Occurring 5th Monday (aka “you are lucky I don’t just make it a double Middle Earth Monday”) whenever it crops up.  Things started off well enough with Diminished Fifth Monday, but by the time I started writing stuff like Fifth Alpini Regiment Monday I realized I could probably do better theme-wise.

So today I’m starting a brand new feature for “Infrequently Occuring 5th Monday”: the top five list.  It’s no secret I love lists, so I should be able to sustain a “Top Five Monday” list for quite a while.  It’s also no secret I love John Wayne, so let’s start things off right! (more…)

Welcome back to Internet Meme Monday!  What is a meme you say?  Well, as I understand it, a meme is similar to a gene, except instead of passing on genetic information it passes on cultural ideas.  A meme can take many forms, from a catch phrase to a hand gesture, but the type of memes I’ll be looking at every second Monday of the month are “internet memes”.

On the agenda this month?  I phonetically subtitle a Latin song to sound dirty in English! (more…)

Every now and then I’m reminded that I really don’t know as much about the bible as I thought I did.  Well, tonight was one of those times: I just finished Nicholas Ray’s 1961 biblical epic King of Kings and boy did I learn a lot!  I mean, I already knew some things, like Pontius Pilate was a meanie and Judas has a heel turn.  Oh, and (spoiler alert) Jesus dies at the end.  But just like in comics, it seems dead doesn’t always mean dead, so I assume, like comics, maybe they had him die to boost sales before they brought him back.  Ok, ok, I’ll try not to make today a day where I say insulting things about the bible, instead, I’ll see if I can focus on all the stuff I learned from watching King of Kings! (more…)

Westerns, at their hearts, are stories about heroes.  The hero defeats the villains and saves the honest townsfolk using, not just his wits, but also his fists and gun.  While the town doctor might be a brave, kind, smart man, in the mythical land of the West that is not enough to free him from oppression at the hands of gunmen stronger than he is.  Violence and the barrel of a gun are the only language the men in black hats will understand, and even the fragile arm of the law can not touch them without a hero to back it up.

The situation presented in these classic Westerns is not reality of course, merely the byproduct of  the rules that American mythology has set for itself.  Just like the Arthurian hero must fight the black knight at the bridge crossing, the hero of a western must eventually shoot it out with the bad guy.  Thus the notion of a “pacifist Western” has always seemed a bit conflicted to me since brute force wielded by a righteous hand is really the only possible solution when you are working within the mythological confines of the American Western and to say otherwise you are either setting yourself up for failure, or no longer making a “Western”.  However, upon further reflection, I have come to realize that the pacifist Western is a far more worthwhile member of the “Western” genre than I had once thought. (more…)

This is the fourth entry in my fairy tale series. Each entry attempts to analyze one archetypical element of myths legends and fairy tales in a short introductory essay followed by an original fairy tale utilizing some of the elements that have just been discussed. This time we’ll be talking about the call to adventure, the caller, and just exactly how much help they can give before the reader starts to wonder: “Damn Gandalf, why don’t you just go destroy that ring by yourself!” (more…)

I’ve talked about the idea of the Western as a unique American mythology before, and the concept is important in understanding my issues with High Noon.  The American Western is first and foremost about a hero.  The hero of an American Western isn’t a whiny reluctant pussy like Frodo Baggins, but rather an assured, immensely capable professional (that is, someone whose skill depends on experience as opposed to the “expert” whose supposed skill depends on “booklearning”).  The townsfolk of an American Western are not evil people but rather good folk who have fallen under the tyranny of bad men whose job it is for the hero to “clean up”.  As a professional, the hero is never motivated by anything other than the fact that it is simply his role in the dichotomy of the old West to face down the bad men as a guardian of the good townsfolk.

Is this a restrictive, simplistic formula?  Yes, of course it is, but it also connects with something deeply human and culturally American in the viewer.  America is a young country and yet, as I’ve said before, already has a mythos as developed as anything in the “old world”.  Thus it always leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth to see attempts to subvert and change this cultural backbone of our society into something it never was–which is exactly what 1952′s High Noon ends up doing. (more…)

I’ve said before, I don’t actually read as much fantasy as most people would think for someone whose favorite book is The Lord of the Rings. Of course I’m open to the idea, it seems like a no-brainer for a person of my inclinations (read: “nerdy”, “all gay for hobbits and shit”), it’s just that I usually come away disappointed and I’d like to try to explain why this is.
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This is another entry in my fairy tale series. Each entry attempts to analyze one archetypical element of myths legends and fairy tales in a short introductory essay followed by an original fairy tale utilizing some of the elements that have just been discussed. This time we’re going to look at what happens when you leave the road!
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This is another entry in my fairy tale series. Each entry attempts to analyze one archetypical element of myths legends and fairy tales in a short introductory essay followed by an original fairy tale utilizing some of the elements that have just been discussed. This time we’ll be talking about getting lost in the woods!
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So there it is, Saturday night, and I’m sitting at home with a Breckenridge double IPA watching a movie (instead of “clubbin” like usual). John Wayne and Dean Martin have just seen the man who shot their friend run into a bar full of men who would like nothing better than to kill them too. Dean Martin has been the town drunk for two years, but this time he wants to go in the front door, he’s tired of going in the back. “Do you think you’re good enough?” asks Wayne. “I’d like to find out” replies Martin, to which Wayne nods “so would I”. I catch myself nodding too. Wayne covers the room from behind while Martin goes in the front. His control of the situation teeters precariously, but finally, after a great deal of tension, Martin proves he is not the man everyone calls “Borachon” any longer. Panicking, a man in the back reaches for his gun on the floor. Wayne turns on him and snarls, as only John Wayne can, “You want that gun? Pick it up. I wish you would.” I’m not ashamed to admit it; I catch myself saying it along with him. Rio Bravo is just that awesome.
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The gunfight at the OK Corral is one of the central stories in American mythology. Good and evil, law and order, such black and white concepts are set against each other with the “guys in white hats” victorious when the dust of the gunfight settles. Even the rogue Doc Holliday emerges as a sort of Robin Hood merely by choosing the right side to fight on. This legend is the backdrop for Oakley Hall’s book Warlock, one of the finest westerns I have ever read.
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This is my contribution to a zine of art, photography and writing loosely centered on the theme “person place thing”. Anyone interested in getting a copy and checking out the other contributions should contact Jon or Janie (or head out to Love Garden to get a copy if they still have some…the zine was released August 2007). They put a lot of work into this self produced zine and it looks very nice.

As for myself, I’ve been writing more fairy tales lately and this is the first post in my fairy tale series. Each entry attempts to analyze one archetypical element of myths legends and fairy tales in a short introductory essay followed by an original fairy tale utilizing some of the elements that have just been discussed.
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At not quite 250 years old, America is a new country. As is the case with all new nations, this relative youth brings with it a lack of a unifying ideology for its inhabitants. If a group of people are to organize themselves into a common society separate from the other existing societies around them, they must first have a sense of cultural identity. There is no easier way to achieve this than developing a unique folklore and mythology.
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There are few things I think of as fondly as American Westerns, but the movies of Robert Altman sure come close. So when I heard he passed away at the age of 81 on November 20th, I thought it would be a good time to revisit his “Western” McCabe and Mrs. Miller. I use quotes with “Western” because, of course, McCabe and Mrs. Miller is not really a Western in the classic American sense. McCabe is no hero, Mrs. Miller is no lady and no one sits around a cozy fire drinking coffee; it’s far too cold wet and dirty for any form of coziness (in fact, sitting in front of a fire in the movie only makes the townsfolk smell a bit more “ripe”). What McCabe and Mrs. Miller is, is quite simply Robert Altman’s best movie (though this sentence could just as easily apply to Nashville and The Long Goodbye)
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To start with, I’ll admit that John Wayne didn’t have a great range, and most of his roles were just variations on the persona he created for himself. But honestly I can’t think of anyone that has greater “charisma”/”screen presence” than John Wayne (though Cary Grant comes to mind).
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