Superheroes

I love a good superhero analogy. Here are my current two favourites. The first is from Kill Bill, and Bill's superhero speech about Clark Kent/Superman which I love.

As you know, I'm quite keen on comic books. Especially theones about superheroes. I find the whole mythology surrounding superheroes fascinating. Take my favourite superhero, Superman. Not a great comic book. Not particularly well-drawn. But the mythology...The mythology is not only great, it's unique.

Now, the staple of the superhero mythology is, there's the superhero and there's the alter ego. Batman is actually Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. When that character wakes up in the morning, he's Peter Parker. He has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man. And it is in that characteristic Superman stands alone. Superman didn't become Superman. Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up int he morning, he's Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red “S”, that's the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears – the glasses, the business suit – that's the costume. That's the costume Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. And what are the characteristics of Clark Kent. He's weak...he's unsure of himself...he's a coward. Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race.


Here is my other new favourite, this an an excerpt from Michael Muhammad Knight's book Journey to the End of Islam:


A week after coming home, I saw then new Batman movie, whipping out a notepad and scribbling thoughts in the dark:


post-9/11 PTSD


I felt it in the first shot, the camera zooming in on a building from the POV of Mohamed Ata in a cockpit.

The plot: Gotham City, the fictitious New York, has been overrun by a villain who betrays all the motives and methods of conventional crooks. The Joker is killing cops, assassinating officials, blowing up hospitals, frezing the city with videotaped threats, and declares himself the new ruler of Gotham, but he's not in it for the money or power, they say that he just “wants to see the world burn.” The good guys explicitly refer to the Joker as a terrorist, in case you failed to catch that he's Osama bin Laden.

On the public surface, the Joker's opposition is Harvey Dent, the idealistic new district attorney who wields the power of law and structure. Compulsive coin-tosser Dent believes in a dualistic universe of Good and Evil, with good guys and bad guys clearly defined by the way that they fight. The Joker burns off half his face and murders the love of his life, turning Dent into the monstrous Two-Face who now sets out to kill everyone he blames for his loss-both the criminals and heroes-to make things “fair.”

Batman continues the good fight underground, in ways that the public could never understand. The Joker is only defeated when Wayne Enterprises CEO Lucian Fox-played by Morgan Freeman, whose voice of moral authority has, various time sin his career, allowed him to play God and the president of the United States, as well as Malcolm X two decades before Denzel-agrees to temporarily suspend his ethics and spy on Gotham's citizens through their cell phones. Batman gives him the promise that it's just this one time, after which the computers will be destroyed. Lucian Fox is rewarded for his faith in the outlaw, while Batman shoots Dent and realises that Gotham cannot know what became of their beloved district attorney. Batman takes the blame for Dent's violence and becomes the sacrificial scapegoat hero who is never thanked, only despised and hunted by the city that he saved.

Knowing that the Joker is bin Laden, my question would be whether George W. Bush saw himself as Harvey Dent-the earnest public servant transformed by the monsters that he fights-You thought we could be decent men in an indecent world?-or Batman, our vigilante who does the wrong things for the right reasons and carries that burden because no one else can.

The film's moment of truth emerges when the Joker's “social experiment” in which two barges filled with evacuees are both rigged with bombs and the passengers of each are given a remote-control detonator to blow up the other. Whichever set of passengers decides to push the button first will be spared, but if neither have done so by the stroke of midnight, both will be destroyed. One barge is occupied from inmates from the local prison, the other is filled with apparently upstanding citizens. The Joker plays off their class prejudices, with the good citizens arguing that they shouldn't sacrifice themselves for criminals

According to the Joker, people are only as honourable as their situations allow them to be; if you threaten their security, all ethics and values go out the window. Batman counters that the people of Gotham are good, and he's right; the people on both barges reject the Joker's ultimatum, refusing to destroy the other. But Bush and bin Laden had a similar conversation with America, and we failed the test: the reelection of Bush during his war in Iraq was owned to Americans saying, Yes, to save ourselves we will blow up the innocent. Bin Laden wins.

Long Time Coming

Well apparently I rarely update my blog. It's just that I usually forget to update this thing, when I'm actually on the internet. Other things to do, music, and TV shows to download, get caught up on my internet reading, then it's time to move on again. And the things going on in my life right now, I feel odd sharing online. It's been a time to confide in close personal friends.

The radio show has been going really well. It's most definitely the highlight of my week. Also a few weeks ago, I got to see my hero Buck 65, as he was in the city doing a show for Jazzfest. I'm so glad I got to see him, I love his music like so fucking much, I cannot explain. He just speaks to me, an amazingly great lyricist. After the show, he came down off stages and started shaking hands with people in the crowd, I drunkenly walked up to him and gave him a hug. Not exactly sure what I said. A few seconds later I found Jocelyn to tell her the awesome news, and she mentioned getting her camera, and we found her camera and managed to score a picture, the two of us with him. I also gave him another hug, and he thanked me for the earlier hug.

I wish I had the courage to dance the way he dances, to not care about what other people think. Dancing can be extremely embarrassing when it shouldn't be. I loved when he'd say “watch this” and go into one of his awesome crazy dances. Want to be able to have that courage. I'm still not at that stage. I was able to take some awesome pictures of his performance. However, I was super-intoxicated, after the show. Jocelyn and I were walking by a fountain that someone had put bubbles in. She convinced me, by saying it would be fun, to jump in. So I did, had a great time playing in the fountain. However I later realized that my iPhone was in my pocket. All the pictures I took from that night = null & void.

I was in a pretty big funk right before Buck sauntered his way into my fair city, and it gave me the jump-start I desperately needed. Ever since he came and went, my life has been on an upswing.

My last post it seemed like I was semi-freaking out about my upcoming birthday. It went well. Do not remember much after 11 p.m. I got cut off, well half cut off, I was told the bartender said no more shots, or doubles. Singles were acceptable. I'm glad he afforded me that, not that I needed it. But from what I'm told I had a great night, hit on too many people that proved inappropriate. Made a few new friends who I shall never remember.

Last year I was filled with so much hope and inspiration. I have no idea where it as gone. I'm looking for it. Been pondering free will versus fate. A friend came to me in a dream a few weeks ago and asked if I believed in fate, and a great conversation came of it. Will things just come to me, or must I go out and seek them?

Seeking is fun, and I'm always up for adventure, or at least that's what I like to tell myself. Ramble, ramble, on and on I go. But I need to get this out. Thinking aloud. Been thinking a lot, about the way I act, and how I accept certain things, that no reasonable person would. Is this just who I am as a person, or have I just learned to accept these things in my life, because it's just not worth the time and effort. I hate to waste energy. Is it that I have no fight left? I sincerely hope that is not the case.

Reflecting what does it all mean. My actions, and subsequent reactions. Where does this all lead. Is there a point of this. What do I want out of life, and what am I willing to do to achieve it. I've always been the classic underachiever. Maintaining the bare minimum. Grade 10-12, took me four years, whereas it should've only taken three. It's not that I'm dumb, I just didn't want to put the effort into it, it all seemed pointless. Am I back at that place, but rather than it being high school, this is life. Is it possible to underachieve in life? I'm sure it is. It is not how I'd like to be remembered. Charlie the underachiever-oh the things she could've done if she applied herself. Or if she even just TRIED. Need some sort of motivation, but I suppose that only comes from within.


As things have transpired in the past few days since beginning to write this (July 16, it is now July 20), I'm starting to believe more in fate, than free will. What makes us do certain things to wind up in certain situations? If we turned left instead of right, we wouldn't have witnessed something that may or may not have changed the way we feel.