Wicker Men
Watched the remake of The Wicker Man tonight... it was decent. I was surprised at how much they didn't butcher the basic storyline. It was fairly stripped down - no witchy special effects, no one had super powers, there was nothing remotely demonic or Satanic thrown in, no upside-down pentagrams to be seen. It was a lot of misdirection and deception. Nicolas Cage was portrayed at least as a sympathetic character (even though he was an ass through most of the whole movie) & the community was more matriarchal than that of the original. The naivete (sp?) was still there - I'm sorry, anytime I walk into an establishment & see Kathy Bates behind the bar, I'm going to be a little hesitant to stick around.
When I watched the original for the first time, it was in a room full of Wiccans & we all cackled madly at the demise of the fanatical Sgt. Howie. When the woman was knocking on the walls, all the guys in the room were hollering, "Hey, I'd do her!". At that point, we had all basically just thrown the Wiccan Rede out the window, set it on fire & danced around it. It seemed perfectly acceptable to lead an unwilling lamb to the slaughter. No one raised a voice in protest... we all wanted to see the guy burn. Of course, I'm no longer anything remotely resembling Wiccan, and I've come to realize that ultimately, to the Gods, humans are tasty. They like blood & burnt offerings, and I feel that their passage into the mists has more to do w/us no longer offering them life in exchange for service. I'm not going to run out & start sacrificing people to my Gods anytime soon - but I have to admit, it's still fun to watch some guy hoisted into a giant wicker basket & set on fire. It's a taste of real old-time religion.
It kind of freaked Rob out. To his credit, he has endured a decade of not-so-gentle teasing because we were handfasted on Beltaine. He hasn't gone off on anyone about it, he's just kind of taken it all in stride, but it's honestly bothered him all this time. He watched our 7th anniversary (back in 2002, ech) approach with an edge of worry. It wasn't so much that the local Pagan community was going to take him out (most of that local community had parted ways, some of it had even moved to Arizona by that time), but maybe that Mother Nature Herself would step in & take him home, so to speak. He still feels kind of like a marked man. He's always been disqualified for one major reason - he can't spawn. It's very important for year kings to have the potential to fertilize anything female they come in contact with. Granted, for some unknown reason, all our girlfriends end up pregnant shortly after they leave us, which is funny in more of that 'huh' way than that 'ha ha' way.
Also finally watched The Prestige. It was a quiet little movie. I was not expecting anything that happened - I was thinking it was more of a secret society thing going on there. I liked the involvement of Nikolai Tesla... he's one of history's unsung geniuses & deserves more credit than he's been allowed to have.
When I watched the original for the first time, it was in a room full of Wiccans & we all cackled madly at the demise of the fanatical Sgt. Howie. When the woman was knocking on the walls, all the guys in the room were hollering, "Hey, I'd do her!". At that point, we had all basically just thrown the Wiccan Rede out the window, set it on fire & danced around it. It seemed perfectly acceptable to lead an unwilling lamb to the slaughter. No one raised a voice in protest... we all wanted to see the guy burn. Of course, I'm no longer anything remotely resembling Wiccan, and I've come to realize that ultimately, to the Gods, humans are tasty. They like blood & burnt offerings, and I feel that their passage into the mists has more to do w/us no longer offering them life in exchange for service. I'm not going to run out & start sacrificing people to my Gods anytime soon - but I have to admit, it's still fun to watch some guy hoisted into a giant wicker basket & set on fire. It's a taste of real old-time religion.
It kind of freaked Rob out. To his credit, he has endured a decade of not-so-gentle teasing because we were handfasted on Beltaine. He hasn't gone off on anyone about it, he's just kind of taken it all in stride, but it's honestly bothered him all this time. He watched our 7th anniversary (back in 2002, ech) approach with an edge of worry. It wasn't so much that the local Pagan community was going to take him out (most of that local community had parted ways, some of it had even moved to Arizona by that time), but maybe that Mother Nature Herself would step in & take him home, so to speak. He still feels kind of like a marked man. He's always been disqualified for one major reason - he can't spawn. It's very important for year kings to have the potential to fertilize anything female they come in contact with. Granted, for some unknown reason, all our girlfriends end up pregnant shortly after they leave us, which is funny in more of that 'huh' way than that 'ha ha' way.
Also finally watched The Prestige. It was a quiet little movie. I was not expecting anything that happened - I was thinking it was more of a secret society thing going on there. I liked the involvement of Nikolai Tesla... he's one of history's unsung geniuses & deserves more credit than he's been allowed to have.