Issue 8 Aug. 2014 The End is WAAY Near… (or “Maybe it IS time for a change”) (The alternate title was “The Devil you know”)
Deadly Virtue IV:
Diligence (converse
vice: sloth) slogan “Due Diligence”
Animal: Goat
Virtue colors light blue/light green
number of souls in
heaven: 143998
disclaimer/ credits: Readers have been forewarned,
apprised, premonished, in re the
oncoming troubles. Therefore, ipso facto, we here at sonsofgodcomicbook are no
longer responsible for those who did not get out in time. Thank you
Art and Story by JP
2
Copyright 2015 Bathtub Comics
issue #8 August Find “sons of god
comic book” on facebook, or on the infernalnet sonsofgodcomicbook.com
Title Logo: the
next letter to be changed is the “O” in God: it is turned into the hand symbol
from Jainism1, with the little human guy “H” from Secular Humanism2.
The old Jainism symbol of the Swastika was previously used for the letter F on
an earlier issue, it symbolized the 4 states of being, while the Hand
symbolizes Ahimsa, “non-injury”. Non-injury rocks as a core tenet of a religion,
and Humanism (in its own human-centric way) can also be very cool (in the right
hands, such as Thomas Paine3)
Front Cover: This
is 9/11 Memorial Park plaza, in NYC4. In this place where so many
lives were taken, the giant inverted reflecting pools give a sobering reminder
of the death, but the trees planted give a very different impression: the plaza
is full of newly planted trees, and one special tree, a callery pear that
somehow survived the fire and melting steel and the cataclysm all around it…
and the little tree was saved, and replanted as “The Survivor Tree”. This has
always felt like a ghost story or an apparition to me, and the entire area
feels haunted. On the cover we see Derek Frost, sneaking around NYC, trying to
get the last special 1611 Bible, and now who do you think gave Derek the inside
information that a Bible was there for the taking, right at this moment…?
(Starts with “S”, rhymes with “Stan…”)
The goat is often associated with Satanism (the knights
Templar, the Goat Pentagram, the Satanic Temple, etc.) so of course a purple
goat with devil’s eyes would be wandering around the grounds in NYC (escaped
from Central Park, no doubt…) The airplane sky banner/sky-ad gag never gets
old, for announcing some obvious or redundant plot point: “The end is Waaaaay near!”
My favorite part is Derek holding the sandwich-board sign
that says “This man is an apostate: Do Not Read This Poison!” it’s so meta: his
words are poison, and he knows it, but he tells you not to read it… because
it’s poison… so you HAVE to read it… that’s Derek in a nutshell! (the JW
symbols here are Mt Bethel and The Watchtower)
Front Inner Sleeve This is a writ (or a subpoena) for someone to
appear at a special hearing in Hawaii… they were prepared for all the Sons of
God around the world, but who is this one for? (Nota bene everyone has been
invited to appear, but the notice of this (actually public) hearing was on
display in an out of order bathroom guarded by a leopard…) we actually tried to
be as official as we could here: we incorporated as many real legal documents
and terms and commands as possible. This gets back to the big construct here: a
company on earth (the Kingdom Corporation) wants to demolish the earth (and
their bylaws require a unanimous vote to pass their resolution): do they have
the legal right to do demolish the earth? Do companies have legal standing as
an entity? And what is god’s law (whensoever 2 of you shall agree on a thing…)
This writ is imagined to be for the District Courts of both
the first judicial district of NY County, and for the fifth circuit court in
Kauai County.
Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!5 Is still used to open a
session in US Supreme Court.
Ad quos pertinent: to whom it may concern
In the matter of “In Re” 6 because this case is
not really between two people.
“a company of fools, a company of laughing faces, a company
of travelers in the desert, etc.”
“You are hereby commanded…” this is taken directly from a
real US District court subpoena.
The “Bad place” or evil harmonic conversion/hellmouth is on
the water at Haena Beach State Park (which is where the big gathering/meeting
will be held. The directions here are the real directions for Haena State Park.
The time is listed as “Solar Noon”7, after
nautical dawn but before astronomical twilight…” all dream-like, enchanted-sounding
times of day.
“regarding the global parcel located 4 celestial bodies from
Sol, a centrally located G-type main-sequence Population 1 luminous
sphere.” 4th rock from the sun= Earth; G-type main sequence…”= the Sun.
So the official board members (the broader “Sons of God”)
are voting on whether the Earth should be sterilized of all life.
The structure of the legal cases are laid out: the rights of
the Kingdom Corporation, being only a “legal person” (and, incidentally, not
Earthly Humans themselves) and not a “natural person”8 are very much
like current us cases involving Hobby Lobby and Citizens United, where First
Amendment Rights of corporations are at issue.: “Four years ago, Citizens
United v. Federal Election Commission1 held that for-profit corporations
possess a First Amendment right to make independent campaign expenditures. In
so doing, the United States Supreme Court invited speculation that such
corporations might possess other First Amendment rights as well.8”
The powerful Kingdome Corporation is arguing that
Corporations should enjoy all the basic Human Rights, which are listed in the
back of this issue: “specifically,
the right to love and be loved, the right to be venerated, to be adored,
worshipped, glorified, and sung to on a weekly basis?”
This is a tribute to the old Star Trek episode “Who
Mourns for Adonais?” where Kirk asks “Would it have hurt us, I wonder,
just to have gathered a few laurel leaves?”
The red wax seal is the giant cosmic salmon, and it says
Revenit (“he’s coming back…”) 2014. It is superimposed on a real roman coin
that we’ll see a little clearer on the next page
Page 1 panel 1 a
little girl, playing in the ruins of Dany’s old house in the Behind the Yards
neighborhood, under the tracks (we still see a ghost cow in the old stock
yards). The burn pattern is like a giant hand grabbed something from there.
Panel 2 digging
through the ashes
Panel 3 she finds
Dany’s hat, but now the little cub is dead and…
Panel 4 she puts
on Dany’s hat, finds the special coin, and is sitting in that haunted place, so
she is tuned in with Dany’s story
Panel 5 roman
coins are typically dated by the span of years in which a “moneyer” was in
power, or an emperor reigned.10 of course, the dates (BC) would not have been
known to the Emperors back then… there are also little legends/markings so
military, governmental or religious titles which help set dates, e.g. the Tribunicia
Potestas (TRP).11 So coin experts and historical sleuths allow us to cross-date
coins
This ancient coin is based on a Caligula coin 12 .
It is Stan’s image, and the implication is that Stan was alive back in the time
of his brother Jesus (Caligula lived during the time of Jesus, from around AD
12-24 till AD 41 when he was murdered. Caligula is immortalized and
romanticized for his bizarre and unhealthy/abnormal overindulgences in riches,
material pleasures, sex, etc. He was
reportedly a decent ruler for a short while, then “After this, the sources
focus upon his cruelty, sadism, extravagance, and sexual perversion, presenting
him as an insane tyrant.”13
I adjusted the date on Stan’s coin (TRPIPP) to fit Jesus’
lifetime more closely, and on the back side we see the mysterious celestial
salmon, who’s “coming back in 2014” ("Senatus Consulto" or SC)
The disclaimer
continues the legal jargon theme of this issue (“you were warned to get out, so
we are not responsible for what happens next…”)
Page 2 panel 1
this is the little girl’s drawing of her experience and discoveries at Dany’s
old burned down house. For realism, it was drawn by an actual 10 year old: Jojo’s
little brother Charlie! (we did ask him to draw it in a little kid’s style…):
this is her, holding hands with the little ghost boy she met: Dany
Panel 2 now she’s
fixing Dany’s house, and she pictures playing there with him. “Under a
microscope…” shifting frames of reference: from under a microscope, to a hand
held pretend-telescope…
Panel 3 cosmic
winds are real!
Panel 4 she sees
it because of her connection with Dany
Page 3 panel 1
Fuller Brush Man/door to door salesmen were a big thing when I was growing up
(like the Red Skelton movie), so I put in some old style jokes.
Panel 2 Derek
having a crisis of conscience 2 days before the big event, (when he starts Armageddon)…
Panel 4 …when he
stumbles onto a house full of “Friends” (Quakers)! this is based on the Friends
Meeting House in York, PA, with others mixed in. the signs along the walkway
are a mix of actual Quaker sayings14 , just rearranged a little, to
be even creepier… the first on the left says “Proceed as the way opens”, and on
the right “Let your Life Speak”. The next one says “I take responsibility” in
this panel, but somehow it magically changed in the next panel to “live up to
the light you have and you will be given more”: a miracle, isn’t that wonderful? This is all Quaker
philosophy and attitude and belief… it’s a very unusual system…
Panel 5 this is
an Amish doorknocker (with the moving eyes…!) as a stand-in for the Quakers. We
used to live right outside of Pennsylvania Dutch Country.
He’s like a vampire: he has to be invited in. If you look
very closely at the sign, you can see the fine print…
Page 4 panel 1
this Quaker is based on two models: of course the Quaker Oats man, and also a
Quaker surgeon from York, PA named Jonathan Rhodes, Jr. a jolly giant, a
distinguished surgeon, and a member of the clean-plate-club (he actually spoke
to me about this over dinners: it was a matter of some pride to him). the
expressions are based on real Quaker sayings and speech.
Panel 2 three
stooges gag “Yes? Yes yes yes?”
Panel 3 “You call
me friend?” based on the Stooges great “Niagara Falls” routine…
Astute readers will have realized Derek only has one of his
2 awesome Jehovah’s Witness pins now (he lost one at the site back in Feb,
where it was found by a reporter…)
The Quaker’s reaction is a classic stereotype joke about a
Quaker coming downstairs with his rifle, catching a burglar in his house (“Thou
art standing right where my gun is aimed…”)
The tired overused sign some people put up on their doors:
“My pit bull eats Jehovah’s Witnesses”. The Jehovah’s are always very sweet and
offer to help clean up leaves, or shovel snow, etc. just talk to them once in a
while, and this also makes it easier to smile and say “Sorry, I don’t want to
talk about God…”
Panel 4 of
course, Derek has a sick perversion of his own: he eats pit-bulls…
Page 5 “Disorderly
Walker”, Members of a Meeting who are deemed to be acting contrary to the Truth
and the Way… what a GREAT expression!
Here’s the burglar joke again, in a different variation…
Panel 2 SLAM!
Derek’s most hated sound in all the world. Now we can see the fine print on the
door sign better.
Here is also the old Mark Trail gag, where an inanimate or
mute character in a panel gets a word balloon that looks like the mouse or bird
etc. is the one talking.
Panel 3 alright,
we kind of got a little mixed up with which way the cab was facing: so sue us.
Panel 4 “139, 999 doors…” From Wikipedia “JW’s and
Salvation15: ‘Based on their
understanding of scriptures such as Revelation 14:1-4,
Jehovah's Witnesses believe that exactly 144,000 faithful Christians go to heaven to rule
with Christ in the kingdom of God.’
This is my second favorite drawing in the series (after Stan
in the back alley with the nun in issue 6, page 16 panel 5). This is Derek in a
nutcake. (p.s. Derek may be stopping in NYC on his way to the River Jordan, so
watch out New York…)
Page 6 panel 1
“Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass”= D.U.M.B.O. a neighborhood in Brooklyn, the
location of the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ world Headquarters. One of the buildings
has the giant message “Read God’s Word the Holy Bible Daily” so we got a plug
in there for the magazine…
Panel 2 here is
our reporter again, Hally Scion. Hally’s look is based on awesome French
meteorologist (from Le Grand Journal) and actress Doria Tillier. This is before
Hally’s transformation into a mystically powerful being, when she was just a
tough, relentless investigative reporter: hot on the trail of the man who walks
across the country in a straight line, from city to city.
Panel 3 4-toed bloody footprints: Stephen King’s? or
Derek’s? the joke here, of course, she is knocking on the JW’s door wanting to
talk… and they don’t care for it one bit (being bothered…)
This is where Derek’s missing JW pin is: Hally found it in
the smoking ruins of Dany’s building in Chi-town
Some acronym humor: keep it on the downlow? The quiet?
Panel 4 the irony… j-dub’s slamming the door on Hally,
the biggest, most powerfully rude slam of all the ages. This explosion effect
is known as the Praxis effect (from Wikipedia: The Praxis effect (also known as
the Praxis explosion or Praxis ring) is a special effect sometimes used in
science fiction movies and other visual media. The effect is most commonly seen
following the explosion of a large object in space — a ring or disc of
matter or energy expanding out from the destroyed object. It is named after the
explosion of the fictional Klingon moon Praxis
at the start of the 1991 science fiction film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered
Country.
The first known use of the effect was in the 1979 science
fiction film Alien during the self-destruction
of the spaceship Nostromo. It first forms a horizontal multicolored line, with
an orange sphere behind or inside it. The shockwave strikes Ellen
Ripley's ship a moment later. A similar effect occurs during the evolution
of V'Ger in Star Trek: The Motion Picture,
released later that same year.
The first acknowledged use of the effect was in the 1991
science fiction film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
The over-mined Klingon
moon of Praxis (after which the effect was named) explodes and throws a
ring-like shock wave through space, precipitating the events of the film.[1])
Page 7 panel 1 “New American Standard Bible
"Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you," says the LORD of hosts, "nor will I accept an offering from you.” This is Malachi 1:10
"Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you," says the LORD of hosts, "nor will I accept an offering from you.” This is Malachi 1:10
More with the vampire trope “ will you invite me in?”
Panel 2 they call
their place Bethel, as their founder did. I always like the joke “But you must
promise never to tell a soul…” so usually I would keep it blank and say “and
she never did!”… but we were waiting for the chance to show what goes on inside
the Jehovah’s Witness HQ…!
He’s actually just a little guy, but his friend is a giant.
Panel 3 Bluto
sneaking into the horse-stable in Animal House
Panel 4 this is a
parody scene of brainwashed consumers/employees/adherents… from the very weird
“They Live!”17 this is the workroom where the JW indentured writers
must crank out the Watchtower every month. The cover we see here is this
month’s issue (143,998 souls and counting!) So THAT’s where all these
Watchtowers come from…!
Truth: I hated that movie when I went to see it in the
theatre, except for the awesome fight scene between Rowdy Roddy and Keith David
(“Frank” in the movie). In the movie, the aliens control Earthers with
hidden/subliminal messages of consumerism: on the desks, we see motivational
words: sleep; obey; this is your god; reproduce; consume; conform, buy, watch
tv, submit, stay asleep, no thought, do not question authority, marry,
reproduce, eat; work 8 hours, sleep 8 hours, play 8 hours; they live, we sleep…
Page 8 panel 1 of
course: the happy, dancing Jehovah’s Witnesses, laughing and leaping around in
ecstasy, have a whole course full of doors they can walk right through, with no
one denying them entry, being rude, or slamming the door in their face! They
are like the chimney sweeps in Mary Poppins, but they get to “Step Inside” instead
of “Step in time”.
Panel 2 this duo
of JW higher ups feature the little guy, and a giant guy with an even more
giant hand, like the Foo Fighters video “Everlong”.
Panel 3 the inner
office is based on the Judge’s office in the movie The Natural (based on
Bernard Malamud’s 1952 novel). The judge is a menacing figure who keeps the
office dark all the time, with the shades drawn.
We see he has a 1612 bible on his desk, but not the
priceless, mysterious 1611 bible with the secret apocrypha…
“Disfellowshipping” is a real thing: a very dreaded form of
alienation.
Page 9 panel 1 Disfellowshipping
is the most serious form of discipline in the whole religion18.
The JW’s believe that apostates are “mentally diseased”, as
noted in the official JW Watchtower online library19. “An apostate is literally
someone who "turns aside". Hence, anyone who leaves their religion of
birth is by definition an apostate. The Watchtower Society defines an apostate
as anyone that teaches contrary to Watchtower teachings.
“Persons who deliberately spread (stubbornly hold to and
speak about) teachings contrary to Bible truth as taught by Jehovah's Witnesses
are apostates.” Pay Attention to Yourselves and to All the Flock p.94
“Apostasy is abandoning or deserting the worship and service
of God, actually a rebellion against Jehovah God. Some apostates profess to
know and serve God but reject teachings or requirements set out in his Word.
Others claim to believe the Bible but reject Jehovah's organization.” Reasoning
From the Scriptures p.34
However, when describing Apostates as assisting Satan, being
unworthy of a resurrection, to be avoided, loathed and hated, it specifically
refers to former Witnesses that speak out against the Watchtower Society or its
doctrine.” 20
This is the 3 stooges routine again, also Vizzini from the
Princess Bride (“You’ve heard of Plato? Socrates? Aristotle? Morons.”): but
with 1 Corinthians 6 9-10: “9Know ye not that
the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, 10Nor
thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall
inherit the kingdom of God. 11And
such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
The other ethos I was shooting for here was a little
esoteric: the Head of JW’s at this time was a man named Don Adams, like the old
comedian Don Adams of Get Smart fame (which was my favorite tv show for a long
time when I was little (hence all the Get Smart Jokes); this is mixed in with
the “Call of Cthulhu” storyline of a sane reporter going insane reporting on
overwhelming evil…
Panel 2 gilead
school is “a tuition-free, five-month course. It focuses primarily on the Bible
and the importance of the evangelizing work. The aim of the course is for its
graduates to strengthen and stabilize God’s people and to help all to develop
the spiritual qualities that they need to meet the challenges they encounter.
During the course, students spend time in class discussing Scriptural
principles that help them to strengthen their relationship with their God,
Jehovah.” 21
Panel 3 Derek’s
revenge for people sicking pit bulls on him, and for signs that say “My pitbull
hasn’t eaten in a week” or “My pitbull loves JW’s”.
Page 10 panel 1
The Jehovah’s Witnesses most famous member was definitely Michael Jackson22.
This is a fascinating relationship: Michael raised as a JW by his mother,
dressing in disguise to go preaching door to door; Michael apologizing to the
JW church for making Thriller; Michael dissociating with the church in 1987; after
Michael’s death, he was not allowed to have a Jehovah’s Witness funeral
(because he was dissociated/an apostate), but his family held a JW-type
ceremony for him.
Panel 2 The many
last names of Derek Frost (the man who sold the world…)
In Chicago, Derek
Frost (based on the character in “Source Code”);
in “Derry” (Stephen King’s pseudonym for Bangor) Maine, he
was Bob Gray (Pennywise the clown’s other name in “It”). Mr. Gray also appears
in other Stephen King Stories, like Dreamcatcher, and briefly in Tommyknockers,
Gray Matter, 11/22/63, etc.
in Sunnydale California (Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s home
town) he was Richard Wilkins: “Sunnydale was founded in 1899 on an area Spanish
settlers had called "Boca del Infierno" - Hellmouth -
where they had also built a Catholic mission for the conversion of the local Chumash
tribe. The town's founder, Richard
Wilkins, intended the town to be a feeding ground for demons, as part of
his pact to achieve Ascension. After considering the
names Happydale and Sunny Acres, Wilkins came up with the
name Sunnydale.”23
in Cleveland Ohio he was Adramalech Modell (the owner of the
cursed and blighted Cleveland Browns, “Art” Modell’s real name was Adramalech,
the demon from the Hebrew bible: “"the Sepharvites burnt their children in
the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim".24
panel 3 so in
addition to his sick obsession with pitbulls, he also has a foot fetish for
Jesus’ feet (he wants to follow jesus’ footsteps) I didn’t notice jojo spelled
the cross caption “INVI” It was supposed to be INRI (the latin initials of
Jesus king of the Jews) but can also be INBI (the greek initialization)
panel 4 the JW’s
believed that 1914 was to be the end of the world (as they described in the
watchtower articles of that time, especially a 1906 special edition) Since then
there have been many other crucial dates/deadlines, all of which have come and
gone without Armageddon, but 1914 has retained it’s importance to the JW’s.
“The above timeline shows Russell's concept that the Second
Coming of Jesus was 1874, and the start of the 1000 year earthly reign was
1914, as it was to end in 2914 A.D.”
I only rearranged the length of Jesus’ invisible reign from
1000 years to 100 years from October 2 1914, a much better date for this story,
don’t you think? The point is how literally people take religions and
scriptures and bibles and sacred texts…
History of
Eschatological Doctrine
|
|||||||
Last Days begin
|
Start of Christ's Presence
|
Christ made King
|
Resurrection
of 144,000
|
Judgment of
Religion
|
SeparatingSheep & Goats
|
GreatTribulation
|
|
1879–1920
|
1799
|
1874
|
1878
|
duringMillenium
|
1914, 1915, 1918, 1920
|
||
1920–1923
|
1925
|
||||||
1923–1925
|
during Christ's
presence
|
||||||
1925–1927
|
1914
|
1878
|
1878
|
within generation of
1914
|
|||
1927–1930
|
1918
|
||||||
1930–1933
|
1919
|
||||||
1933–1966
|
1914
|
||||||
1966–1975
|
1975?
|
||||||
1975–1995
|
within generation of
1914
|
||||||
1995–present
|
during Great
Tribulation
|
imminent
|
page 11 panel 1
We can start to see who the leader of the JW’s is here.
Nothing’s as dangerous as a scorned religious adherent
8 old men in Brooklyn, the church leaders/elders/faithful
and discrete slaves
“There is no missing chapter, no secret ritual…” this is
actually one of my favorite scenes from “Independence Day”:
President Thomas Whitmore: Mr. Levinson, contrary to what you may have read in the
tabloids, there is no Area 51. There is no spaceship...
Albert Nimzicki:
Uh... excuse me, Mr. President? That's not entirely accurate.
David Levinson:
What, which part?
Panel 2 now we
get a good look at the man in charge: so the president/head of the church looks
an awful lot like Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the watch tower society,
and the movement that became the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
“Get thine ass…” King James Bible
This is of course Exodus 20:17 “King James Bible
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.”
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.”
But there is also another interesting verse:
Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together. Deuteronomy 22:10, because the two cannot step together in one yoke, their gaits are so different, hence this law.
Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together. Deuteronomy 22:10, because the two cannot step together in one yoke, their gaits are so different, hence this law.
The lead elder gives her the same magic key the waiters had
to get into the tower apartment back in issue 5
Panel 3 “in the
financial district…” right next to the old WTC.
High level talks… ie on the top floor
Virgin birth is a big part of so many religions25
and other mythologies (eg star wars…) I like this because this is just the kind
of nonsense the super privileged would waste their time arguing about: their
prioritites become bizarre and self-indulgent
Page 12 panel 1 a lot of sex jokes: how some gods are carnal
beings, some puritanical or just plain uninterested in love or mortals or sex…
the science is real btw about some birds, fish, etc.
There is a loud BUZZZing sound coming from the hall
Panel 2 I like them watching the fire: but even that
has to be artificial (they light the TV on fire instead of making a fire in the
fireplace)
Dying God narrative 26 This is phrased like King Arthur in Monty
Python and the Holy Grail talking about sparrows carrying coconuts
Jesse is NOT interested in anything that questions his
supreme infallible position
Panel 3 many gods
were SUPER into sexuality, and this book is of course the Kama Sutra by
Vatsyayana27. So again with the blurb jokes:
“#1 page turner…” by Rati. Rati is the Hindu Goddess of love
and sexuality (In Hinduism, Rati (hindi:
रति ) is the goddess
or femine angel (angeline) of passion and lust, and a daughter of Daksha. She
married Kāma, the Lord God of Love.
Rati was the Hindu goddess of sexual desire and erotical love. She was the
daughter of the sun god Daksha and the wife of Kama, the god of love in Hindu
myth.)
“Over 2000 years on the best seller list!” why Gary Trudeau?
I forget what I was thinking… it’s just that Gary Trudeau gets his nose in to
give blurbs on just about every cartoon collection I see: like he’s the Dean,
all of a sudden? The authority? He was very funny and original way back in the
day…
“much more fun than the bible” by Solomon. Song of Songs
also known as song of Solomon is exceedingly sexual :
How beautiful are your sandaled feet, princess!The curves of your thighs are like jewelry,
the handiwork of a master.
2 Your navel is a rounded bowl;
it never lacks mixed wine.
Your waist is a mound of wheat
surrounded by lilies.
3 Your breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle.
Song of Songs 7:1-3
On the cover, I couldn’t help giving both lovers curly
beautiful moustaches (those old diagrams are always pretty silly looking to me)
This is one of my favorite jokes I wrote: “You fellas can
regenerate asexually if you want” to which Jesse replies “Why don’t you all go
regenerate yourselves?”
Panel 4 I love
these intercoms on fancy buildings
He is calling Stan at Dunnings (a safe place where they
can’t get him, where there is no cell reception, but where there may be a
magical old-fashioned telephone (in the old torn-down non-existent asylum…)
This is a small detail, but it was a lot of fun to find the
actual number people would have dialed back in the 1800’s to get Dunning
Asylum. The Chicago Public Library was TREMENDOUSLY helpful and I learned a ton
about the old phone system, and how it changed (you can read what I learned
about it here100: here’s what you had to dial back then…
**West-934, Cook County Consumptive Hospital, Dunning
**West-934, Cook County Poor House, Dunning
**West-934, Cook County Insane Asylum, Dunning
The asterisk note reads: Private telephone system. When the
private system operator answers, please give the name of the department or of
the person wanted. For an A.D.T. messenger give your order to the operator.
This totally fits with the make-believe, surreal hallucinatory
aspect of the concept: calling a magical half-brother in a non-existent insane
asylum 100 years in the past… by asking the operator to get you West-934… finding
this old phone number for me, was like dialing into the sad past…
The sign says “Thy Kingdom.com a division of Existence.net ”since
the beginning””
Who is that buzzing their buzzer?
Page 13 panel 1 this is actually pretty close to the actual
lobby of 90 west28, 29: we added the living changing masks,
but the gargoyle is real and life sized, still guarding the lobby today. The
gargoyles on the outside were damaged in the 9/11 attacks and many were
replaced, but surprisingly, some of the damage was intentionally left on the
exterior, as a reminder of the terrorist attacks. Recall that the building had
a weird construction involving tons of terra cotta tiles, some more than a foot
thick!
“John Peirce served
as contractor for the building which was designed to be completely
fireproof. Working with structural
engineer Gunvald Aus, Gilbert used state-of-the-art construction methods
specifically aimed at preventing the spread of fire.
The
double-layer terra cotta of the façade was more than a foot thick. Inside, the steel support columns were
encased in 4-inch thick clay pottery tiles and the fire stairwells were walled
in heavy tiles ranging from four to six inches thick. Arched tiles, a foot thick, were installed
within the floors to halt the spread of fire between floors.”
If you look closely, the elevator
floors stop at 22, and the very top only has a symbol marked: “Ax Hacx”.
Panel 2 she finally gets a response to her buzzing. But who…?
Panel 3 this was also a LOT of fun: look more closely at the names
of the tenants on the directory: old comic book creators often changed their
names to more anglicized mainstream American names… can you guess who everybody
is on this list? (it’s a pretty great list of tenants!)
90 West Directory
23 Sons of God, LLC
22 Jacob Kurtzberg (Jack
Kirby)
21 Stanley Martin Lieber
(Stan Lee)
20 Jerome Siegel, Joseph Schuster (Jerry Siegel, Joe Schuster)
19 Mort Drucker, Al Jaffee, Harvey Kurtzman
18 William Erwin Eisner
(Will Eisner)
17 Robert Kahn, Eli Katz
(Bob Kane, Gil Kane)
16 Johnny Romita (père and fils)
15 David Aja
14 C Monroe Schultz and W Boyd Watterson II
13 Douglas Curtis Swan
12 Michael Dalton Allred
11 Boleslav William Felix Robert Sienkiewicz (Bill
Sienkiewicz)
10 Giovanni Natale and Silvio Buscema (John and Sal Buscema)
9 Nelson Alexander Ross (Alex Ross)
8 Carl Barks
7 Michael Joseph Mignola
(Mike Mignola)
6 Frank Miller
5 Gregory Capullo and Todd Dean MacFarlane
4 Neal Adams
3 Harry Lucey
2 Dan Parent
1 Stephen J. Ditko
Nuff said?
Panel 4 as she
steps into the abandoned 23’rd floor, she becomes ghostly blue, like everything
in this sinisterly powerful place… we see the same elevators from issue 5. The
chair the caretaker is seated on is our kitchen chair. You can see the same
view the waiters saw in issue 5, but… now it’s all in ruins… the sign says “Way
Near”
Page 14 panel 1
this is the big surprise: this place is abandoned and dilapidated? Empty since
1907? Is this the right place? The gods were just here watching tv in the
world’s most opulent apartment?!
The caretaker was based on Kenneth, the super-page, from
NBC’s comedy “30 Rock”.
Panel 2 the
caretaker has an “Ax Hacx” tattoo on his wrist.
This is matthew 16:19 again: King james version 19 And I
will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou
shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
That’s why they need human lawyers, to follow human law,
and whatever we bind down here wil be bound up in heaven.
Panel 3 The
rat in the cage/rat trap is drawn right from my memory of a ROUGH little rat we
trapped in our foundations. We thought it was a much bigger animal, like a
skunk, but when we built a long chute with a trap at the end, we suddenly heard
an awful SCREAMING!. It was trying so hard to wriggle out through the trap
steel grid, and it was squealing like a horror-monster. When it got stuck in
the small squares, I tried to push it back in with a stick… and it BIT my stick
clean in half, then it thrashed even harder. (I managed to get it back in, then
I brought it far away into the woods…) I penciled him from memory and jojo
inked and colored him.
“there is no escape… from family
duty.”
“My father’s business…” the Great
Gatsby quote again, the basis of the story of the sons of god who were left in
charge of this property, and who are ruining it, running it into the ground.
Panel 4 I love monstrous Kenneth just chomping right into the
intact fish’s head. This is the story of the loaves and the fishes that never
run out, that fed an entire crowd (once a crowd of 4000, another time, a crowd
of 5000) e.g. john 6:14 or Mark 6:43. That’s all that poor Kenneth ever gets to
eat: all day, every day, his whole life: fishes and loaves…
His tie design says “Ax Hacx”. I
also love the fish etc in the barrels: we’ll see that design again on the back
cover!
Page 15 panel 1 this is that same hall we saw back in issue 5, when
we were introduced to the magically opulent penthouse headquarters of the Sons
of God” but this place is abandoned and dilapidated: to the left, we see the
old stable just before the gods’ sitting room/tv room (shouldn’t the mega-rich
should have horsies in their apt?) While on the right, we see the old abandoned
bar.
Panel 2 another allusion to revelation: some people saw the
horrible murder and destruction of 9/11 as an apocalyptic event, and the idea
is it did play a part in the oncoming catastrophe of oct 2 2014. Here we’re in
the gods’ TV room (complete with cracked windows and beat up comfy chairs.)
Panel 3 the caretaker was born in this apartment, and he has never
been below the 23rd floor. He is saying he never will either, unless
the bldg. is actually destroyed this time around (in which case he will fall to
the ground). The big meeting with the corporate vote on the fate of the World
is tomorrow oct 2 2014.
Panel 4 this was
a theme I’ve carried around for a LONG time: that modern society’s system of
“democracy” is bullshit: nobody knows (nor usually cares) what the hell goes on
in local politics/town halls, let alone the millions of decisions /bans
/tariffs/reversals/removals /gifts /agreements/arrangements/ pardons/ actions
decrees happen every week inside the us,
with foreign powers, with foreign companies, leaders, dictators, with local
ceo’s… we have given away our interest in “proxy” votes, and the myth is that
we have no say, no involvement over anything the govt does, it is too far
removed from us and our understanding: it’s all bullshit, panem et circus, keep
the masses entertained and confused and sated. So that’s what’s going on behind
the scenes with the world’s many “Sons of God”: they’re GOING to have this big,
official vote, but none of us knows or bothered to keep up with what the gods
and their religions were really saying, none of us read the fine print: and if
they can get a unanimous vote tomorrow, as they say in Alien 2: “That's it, man. Game over, man. Game over! What the fuck are we gonna do now? What are we gonna do?” BUT… they
have to follow the law and once again, God’s word said 19 And I will give unto thee
the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth
shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be
loosed in heaven.
And again, that’s why they need human lawyers, to follow
human law, and whatever we bind down here wil be bound up in heaven. The Gods
must follow the laws of man, but they’ve always had the run of the place cause
we gave away the steering wheel LONG ago…
Panel 6 and the biggest legal loophole of all: matthew
18:19 if they can get 2 people to sign on to their nonsense, they can bypass
the requirements of even needing the 2 “natural human” votes (if they can get
full Human Rights for their
corporation).
I’ll never forget that screeching scream the rat made as
he got himself stuck in the holes of the cage.
Page 16 panel 1
I love making fun of myself here, again: “outside a bad movie or a lame comic…”
yup, this is an EXTREMELY well trodden (not to say cliched…) warhorse:
revelation has been done SO many times in pop culture… for example in movies
like Rosemary’s Baby, The Omen, The Seventh Sign, Seventh Seal, End of Days,
Omega Code, Prophecy 1, 2, and 3… and so many comic books… these stories always
take a pseudo-reverent, quasi-mystical tone, they play that ritualistic human
choir soundtrack… at least we make fun of ourselves for doing it!
Of course the Caretaker is doing the bit from “The Hitchhiker’s
Guide to the Universe” where the plans for the demolition of the Earth have
been on display, as required, for the proscribed time, but WAY down in the
basement somewhere inaccessible30.
Panel 2 Of course Kenneth had the missing copy of
the special 1611 Bible, containing the rituals to bring about the End of Days…
I still love the blurb on the front cover: “From God’s mouth to your ears…”
it’s a play on the real saying: “From your mouth to God’s ear”
Panel 3 this is what it says on the inside front
sleeve of the insidious book: “if found, please call 716-776-2323”: this is the
famous phone number on the theatrical release of “Bruce Almighty”, a movie
about God taking a break and giving omnipotence to Bruce (Jim Carrey)31 a
guy from Buffalo (area code 716). In the movie, god texts Bruce from his God’s
cell phone, 716-776-2323), but in the DVD, they erased that part and made it
555-0123 for some reason. But it turns out, interestingly, that someone has
taken this number now, 776-2323, and made it a number where you can text
prayers to God at 240-776-2323 (SendToGod.com) and everyone in the world can
see everyone’s prayers.
p.s. this reminds me of “the phone of the wind” a phone booth in
japan where people come to talk to their dead loved ones 32
p.p.s. this also reminds me of UU church services: nice kind
people talking to god as CBT, and it works and is safe and harmless
“Bibulus antiquus veridangerus”: this is the old roadrunner joke,
with the latin genus and species names for the roadrunner and the coyote.
Tabula contentos: fake latin for table of contents (for the bible):
“1) The Staaart of Life” genesis
“2) Over the Garden Wall” when man was kicked out of the Garden of
Eden
Panel 4 this is a pretty accurate map of the layout
of 90 West right on the edge of the 9/11 memorial (and Liberty Park, not
pictured). Where only the shadows of the inverted pools mark the tombs of the
fallen towers. This panel shows a diagram of where reported hally scion walks
to, to sit down on a bench in the memorial park grounds. Just by the south
pool.
Panel 5 the trees are whispering to her as she
opens up the cursed ancient Bible
Panel 6 so she decides to call the portentous,
foreboding number… haven’t we all started to do that at some time? And when we
finally hear that voice on the other end of the line… it’s a cheery message in
Spanish?
I love the sounds from old touch tone phones: especially when you
used to be able to hold the notes down, and didn’t just get a brief “chirp” you
could combine numbers and tones. I used the real bitonalities on these pages,
which was fun. 33 so when the message says hi, you’re calling Stan.
to continue in English, press 2” this
tone f and e, is the real tone for the number 2.
Hally’s cell phone shows the time as “9:11”, in this strange
hauntedl in-between place, on October 1, 2014 one day before the end of the
world…
Her phone is an iPhone, but it has a symbol for satan on the left,
and one for jesus on the right.
Page 17 panel 1 I HATE when phone menus start with “please
listen to the entire recorded spiel because some tiny detail may have changed
and we won’t let you save any amount of time or aggravation…” so this is Stan
messing with people: “press 9, then 6, then 3… now do a little dance for me…
now do your impression of Jimmy Stewart… now…”
The notes he makes her play are from Corey hart’s song “Sunglasses
at night”:
“I wear my sunglasses at night, So I can so I can,
See the light that's right before my eyes” because Stan does wear sunglasses at night…
See the light that's right before my eyes” because Stan does wear sunglasses at night…
Panel 2 Stan still playing with her (like those phone trees and
voicemails that send you from one number to the next, then the next, then back
to the main menu…
This time, he’s making her play
“Sympathy for the Devil”:
“And I was around when Jesus Christ
Had his moment of doubt and pain…”
Had his moment of doubt and pain…”
But in a nod to good old Mark Trail, we made it look like the bird
was singing the song. (try it on your old touch tone phone!)
Panel 3 another big time clue about Stan’s real
identity: “We all need a little “sympathy” once in a while…”
Panel 4 “Do I have your permission to record this
call?” actually, she doesn’t really need it to record her own phone call: "Federal law permits recording telephone calls and in-person
conversations with the consent of at least one of the parties. See 18
U.S.C. 2511(2)(d). This is called a "one-party consent" law.
Under a one-party consent law, you can record a phone call or conversation
so long as you are a party to the conversation." We’ll see
the Google Voice transcript of the missing portion of this phone call at the
back of the book.
Panel 5 the survivor tree again! 34
with a band-aid…
The Federal Reserve
Bank of NY is SUPER secure, full of gold and assets, and only about 3 short
blocks from where Hally is sitting in the 9/11 memorial park.35 it
would be like locking it up at Gringott’s for harry potter… but will she listen
to Stan?
Panel 6 Derek, sneaking around, poking
out from behind every tree and monument… (and… a goat, of course… and of course
the Sons of God have carved their name as cheap graffiti on the poor old
Survivor Tree, beloved symbol of how New Yorkers survived 9/11
Panel 7 I do believe preachers are
almost always WAY messed up… they fall to this con-man profession through
levels of failures… till they get some modicum of success and recognition and
even admiration as a preacher for a community…. But those people who need this
approbation by their nature so apt to strike out if they are shunned, ignored,
kicked out (and so many of them are just plain evil to start with, abusing
children, the weak, the needy…)
I remember it as
“Bend fold spindle or mutilate” but the old IBM warning was "Do not
fold, spindle or mutilate" and it comes from the inscription on an IBM
punched card. Frequently, office workers organize papers and forms by stapling
or folding them together, or by impaling them on a spindle. Because Hollerith
(punched) card readers scan uniform rectangular holes in a precise arrangement,
any damage to the physical card makes it unusable. In the 1950s and 1960s, when
punched cards became widespread, manufacturers printed a warning on each card;
IBMs Do not fold, spindle or mutilate was the best-known. In 1964, the student
revolution at the University of California, Berkeley used the phrase as a
symbol of authority and regimentation. (this was also the name of a weird old
Helen Hayes movie, but I digress because she is one of my favorite actresses…)
Leviathan is
probably the first most dangerous animal on the planet, but it could be Jesse
or Stan…
Panel 8 “Played by 4 competing sides…”
Panel 9 this follows derek’s trail of
destruction so far:
1) Chicago: Dany’s
burnt down hovel in Back of the Yards
Page 18 panel 1
2) Derry/Bangor
Maine …this is what Stephen King’s old house looks like now: it’s been torn
down and there’s just an empty lot there at 14 Sanford St. not sure why… it’s a
bad little neighborhood, surely not worth much for commercial use… small children
rumored missing… this is an allusion to king’s story of “It” where the town
basically makes a deal with the devil for prosperity and security, in exchange
for ignoring the deaths of a small number of innocent children
We see King’s old
“Underworld” typewriter in the rubble, and the back wall indeed abuts on the
YMCA’s parking lots. The paper Stephen was typing says “My only wish is to see
far arden again… my only wish… 36
There is a real
estate sign there, but this sign is for “Horizon Realty”, the fictional outfit
Phil Dunphy works for on ABC’s “Modern Family”. N.B. we used this because we
used to love that show, but they began a weird trend of hurting, injuring,
killing or abusing animals on more and more episodes. The list became absurd,
and when we wrote to the writers, producers and stars to ask if they could
please stop with the animal abuse jokes, no one ever even acknowleged our
letters or calls. We stopped watching them cold turkey after my 11 yr old sadly
wrote to them. It was like the “Hangover” animal abuse controversy: any
complaints just made the director add even more and worse animal abuse “humor”
like beheading a sweet giraffe on the national TV commercial. Uck, and wtf? Put
it in your unread book or your unwatched movie if you want… but don’t brag
about it, force it onto everyone’s tv’s in the national trailer, force kids to
see this sick joke about animal cruelty. Let drunken bro’s come see it if they
choose, but this is perpetuating abuse to the general public. He made it THE
point of his movie, THE highlight, THE symbol of the movie. Fuck you Todd
Philips. Theyah.
Panel 2
3) Cleveland, OH I
like Derek digging holes (that look like graves…) in front of The Dawg Pound…
Rest in Pieces, Lakefront Stadium… I
also like Derek waving to the cops.
Panel 3
4) Sunnydale, CA
pop. 38,499 est.1808 this is that great scene at the very end of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, (22nd episode of season 7 and the 144th
episode of the series), where the entire town caves into the Hellmouth , then
finally, the famous “Welcome to Sunnydale” sign falls in after it. Faith says
“Looks like the Hellmouth is officially closed for business” to which Giles
replies “There’s another one in Cleveland. Not to spoil the moment…”
Panel 4
4) NYC Marriott
World Trade Center, 3 WTC Manhattan. 1000 guests were staying there; 40 people
died there; now the 9/11 museum stands there.
Panel 5
5) this is my
favorite bugs bunny joke again: start at the beginning… “@ tiny amoebas… the
Staaaaart of life!”37
Stan bemoans the
limitations modern audiences put on storytelling (time constraints, low
audience attention span, low patience, etc. so we also gave the audience a
break, from hearing the high-minded arguing about religion, poverty, social
injustice, and the Apocalypse between Stan and Hally, and we simply recorded
their argument on Google Voice, transcribed it (also with Google) and put it in
an appendix at the back, so we could move the story along.
Panel 6 kinda like the “yada yada yada”
joke… you skip over some very very important details to get to the end. The end
is obviously about the conflicts and inconsistencies of religion, taking and
taking from humans, but only giving back more hate and discrimination and
finally the Apocalypse… the end obviously centers around the mechanism of the
Sons of God voting to have the world demolished so they can rebuild luxury
exclusive (empty) quarters; and Derek Frost represents the Humans trying to go
back to the beginning and start over with a “Paradise on Earth”… the mechanism
is the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ belief in an end-date coming some time around the
cataclysmic date of October 2, 1914 (now they have often rescheduled the
end-times, many living JW’s and ex-JW’s will tell you how sure they were that
1975 was IT! For our story, the big jw prophesy centers around the “This
Generation shall not pass away until these things occur” which some jw’s take
to mean 100 years… (it keeps getting pushed back, don’t ya know…) therefore:
we’re all going to die!!!
“But every religion
claims they have saviors watching over us…”
“Ah, but Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” this,
of course, is the big joke to that rip-off fish-wrapper “Watchmen”: “who watches the watchmen?”
We see stan tapping
on the switch hook to switch between calls 38. Ah, the good old
days… I used to dial numbers on phones with locked rotary dials, by replicating
the clicking sounds of each number by tapping on the switch hook…
Page 19 jojo made a beautiful full page
spread. Jesse is still forced to “call” Stan via an old fashioned land-line
(although it’s obviously also a celestial telephone call) because Stan knows
how to avoid their direct contact with him (safe spots, etc.)
Everybody has
probably figured out by now, that this is a parody of “The Descendants”, where
one conflicted soul Cousin Mattie (George Clooney) has the final necessary
signature to sell off paradise on Kauai: if he signs with the other trustees,
paradise will be demolished, sold for retail, resorts, golf, etc. but Clooney
likes things the way they are: he feels tied to the land and refuses to sign.
Jesse here plays the part of Cousin Hugh, (Beau Bridges) who is trying to
pressure Mattie to sign the papers, so everybody wins.
Jesse is misreading
the famous Matthew quotes about “whatsoever thou smite on earth…” from the
Bible for his own gain, but Stan points out that Matthew (Cousin Mattie to
them) on the next page, actually said they needed two humans to agree with each
law/change/policy down here on Earth. Derek is the only human trying to start
Armageddon the old fashioned way (through the Bible), and Stan points out that
this fail-safe provision was put there by the old man (their father i.e. God)
“Potato, Stromata”
this play on words is making fun of Stan’s correction of Jesse for reading the
way he should behave into the Bible… the “Stromata” were an ancient Greek text
on how good people should lead a Christian life. “Hair Shirts” are also called
sack-cloths or cilices, they are rough, itchy undergarments worn as
self-mortification for guilty Catholics (isn’t that a redundant term?).
“It’s on the back
sleeve…” love breaking the fourth wall… yessah!
“Just me trying to
save everything…” the basic conflict or contradiction of the book again…is the
one who tries to preserve our freedom to choose/way of life/nature Savior or
Satan?
Page 20 panel 1 another tribute page:
this ghostly hotel room is a REAL close approximation of the fallen hotel rooms
at the doomed Marriott WTC: the bed-covers, the colors, the curtains, the TV…
all from authentic period photos. And on the bed is a key card for the New York
Marriott World Trade Center, a hotel flyer, and on the wall a flyer for the
hotel’s “Tall Ships Bar and Grille” and the Greenhouse Café. All hotel rooms
used to have a Gideon’s Bible, which seems so tame now compared to the Evil
Bible Hally has (unfortunately) in her room.
And of course we
see her incoming call is from Stan, calling again from inside the “Cook County
Insane Asylum” i.e. Dunning Insane Asylum. (this is the real authentic
historical number you would have called way back in the 1800’s100.)
he IS calling from a land line, but tricky Stan… is he still inside Dunning’s?
Panel 2 the jehovah’s DO believe Jesus
began reigning in Heaven in 1914; 39 the whole eschatology is pretty
interesting:
“After the passing of 1975, the
Watch Tower Society continued to emphasize the teaching that God would execute
his judgment on humankind before the generation of people who had witnessed the
events of 1914 had all died.[164][165][166][167]
This teaching was based on an interpretation of Matthew 24:34 ("Truly I
say to you that this generation will by no means pass away until all these things
occur"), with the term "a generation" said to refer "beyond
question" to a generation living in a given period…”
And there’s all kinds of other fun
whacky beliefs and details involving pyramids, battles, etc. this is where we took some liberties with official
JW policy. Some people do believe that the “Generation” deadline from 1914 did
mean “100 years”, and that the great tribulations would be starting on this
date: October 2 2014.
“The current world era, or "system of things", is considered to be
in its "last
days",[170]
facing imminent destruction through intervention by God and Jesus Christ,
leading to deliverance for those who worship God acceptably. This judgment will
begin with the destruction by the United
Nations of false religion, which they identify as "Babylon the Great", or the
"harlot", of Revelation 17.[171]
This will mark the beginning of the great
tribulation.[172]
Satan will subsequently attack Jehovah's Witnesses, an action that will prompt
God to begin the war of Armageddon, during which all forms of government and all
people not counted as Christ's "sheep", or true followers, will be
destroyed.[173]
The Society's publications make no explicit claim about whether small children
or the mentally ill will survive, but say God's judgment will be righteous and
merciful.[174]
After Armageddon, Satan will be cast into an abyss and unable to influence
humanity, then God will extend his heavenly kingdom to include earth,[175][176]
which will be transformed into a paradise similar to the Garden
of Eden.[177]Most of those who had died prior to God's intervention will gradually be resurrected to a "day of judgment" lasting for the thousand years referred to in Revelation 20.[178][179] This judgment will be based on their actions after resurrection rather than past deeds.[180] At the end of the thousand years, Christ will hand all authority back to God.[181] Then Satan is released for a final opportunity to mislead perfect mankind;[182] Satan, his demons, and any who fail the test will be destroyed, leaving a fully tested, perfect human race who will live forever.”40
“Descending. It’s like we’re the
Descendants here…” another Descendants joke
Nepotism: God gave his favored son,
Jesse, the cushy job of doing nothing, of being the Savior, sitting around in
the world’s most exclusive penthouse apt. while Stan, the prodigal/black
sheep/cast out, has to work to continually test the status quo, and also, as he
says, to “bring the light” every day. (Lucifer is the “bringer of light”
That’s our macbook pro on her bed.
Panel 3 “All the posers all the pretenders” all the many many gods
people believe in and bow down to and pray to from all around the world
Hally wants to talk to some other
colorful gods, but Stan shuts her down: this is from an old Mr. Rogers
interview from way back when the whole country was just discovering Mr. Rogers,
in the late 70’s or 80’s, and some network interviewer in the Neighborhood of
MakeBelieve was asking King Friday to bring out a different one of his little
friends: but the King was NOT having it. He said, in character, something like
“I’m not done yet, and I don’t appreciate your little insinuations…” Fred was
truly an awesome individual!
Panel 4 “Um, I want to believe?” she is “trying to believe” like
all good x-filers must
Insert photo xfiles
Derek is a pawn played by 4 sides:
society, the Jehovahs Witnesses, the Sons of God, and…? (also by Stan, as we’ll
see… he’s been playing everyone else against each other all along, to keep
things just the way he likes them here on earth…)
Panel 5 “You’re breaking up…” joke again… a way of withholding
important information from readers… a lame device…
“things is about to get weird
around here…” Stan’s catch-phrase
“Publish it like right now…” then
the world will be in on the scheme, not just a secret quorum… then the evil
nuns, leviathan, the sons of god, derek… none of them can touch her, bu god’s
law.
Ah, but her fatal flaw? She wants
to “Fact check” sources… Stan chides her that good journalism is for losers,
and people will call her “Scoop”… so much pressure on news outlets to get the
story first…
The keys say “The end is WAY near!
10 2 2014”
Journalism: “History’s first
version, updated minute by minute…” This is from Roy Peter Clarke’s awesome
contest again 41. This is sad to me, as I’ve always thought history
should hold a higher place than this: whoever writes it first; whoever wins
gets to write the history book; what most people believe becomes the official
party line/ gets taught in schools… it’s all rotten… I hope it’s just a cycle
Panel 6 “Send it to Rolling Stone” because they don’t care about
fact-checking… Rolling Stone did so many wrong things with its article “A Rape
on Campus”: they retracted the story and at first put the blame on the woman
who came fwd about the alleged rape…
“Rolling Stone
themselves offered up an appealing scapegoat: Jackie. Especially in their
original statement, which has now been edited, Rolling
Stone shamefully tried to lay their journalistic failures on their
source, saying they had “trusted” Jackie’s account and found their “trust
in her was misplaced.” (They’ve now edited
the statement to acknowledge that their mistakes were their own, not
Jackie’s.)”42, 43
Now, Rolling Stone is usually a
pretty “stand-up” operation, but who can help piling on with such a lousy f’d
up disaster? Not me…
If she exposes the truth, even on a
public blog, the story becomes public and the awful outcome cannot be
accomplished/completed
“I’ve got promises to keep…” from
Robert Frost’s “On Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”… Stan is super-tired…
“Maybe it IS time for a change…” another recurring theme of the story…
L8tor
my little brother always said this like “Late-tore”
Where is Stan? And where’s he
going?
Page 21 panel 1 we see it’s oct 1 2014; Our reporter Hally Scion
has the story all queued up, ready to launch; she is just about to push the
“publish” button… here is the text of her story:
““Armageddon’s Witness: Bethel’s
Secret Role in the Apocalypse”
By H.P. Scion, Special to the Chicago Daily Tribune 10/1/15
“The most merciful thing in the
world, I think, is the inability of the human
mind to correlate all its contents.
We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity,
and it was not meant that we should voyage far,” said an elder Member of the
Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, speaking on condition of anonymity. The
strange events that are even now unfolding in New York and across the country
in 7 discrete locations, offer our single “glimpse of forbidden aeons”,
explained the unnamed ecclesiastical leader from the Brooklyn Offices of the
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. “Don’t tell me it’s the
old terrifying-vistas-of-reality, trick?! Sorry about that, Chief Reporter. We
are going mad from the revelation and fleeing from the deadly light into the
peace and safety of a new dark age… and LOVING it.” I asked the president about
all the predicted End Times of the past 100 years: “Would you believe, we
missed it by THAT much…?” All roads of
inquiry lead me back to one man: Derek Frost, of 1483 west franklin in
Northfield, ILL. He is 6 ft 1, with grey eyes, and greying brown hair. Mr.
Frost has been wanted for questioning since a tragic fire in an abandoned apt.
bldg. resulted in the deaths of two
homeless people in Chicago. Mr. Frost began as a minister and proselytizer for
The Jehovah’s Witnesses. But soon after completing his studies at the Gilead
School, Mr. Frost began to break ranks with official JW doctrine and
procedures. Disfellowship proceedings were begun after unpleasant accusations
arose regarding missing rescue pets. On
sept 11, 2001 Frost was a registered guest at the Marriott Vista International
Hotel at 3 WTC. On that day, he began his strange, life’s mission: an unholy
quest that would bring him to 7 cities in search of the last 7 copies of a
hallowed 1611 Bible: a tome that contained eldritch rituals to bring about
Armageddon, thus heralding the Final Battle and the chance to witness the
rebirth of Earth as Paradise…”
Panel 2 oh no! Hally has a crisis of conscience! Noooo! Her
journalistic ethics and scruples and sincerity will be the undoing of her…
Panel 3 yep. Evil leech-monster nuns coming up out of the toilets.
That’s independent comics for ye! (Jojo actually made an AWESOME action figure
Leech-Nun coming out of a toilet
Panel 4 Stan knew better, but was he sincerely trying to help her?
Or to trick her into NOT sending it in…?
(p.s. this may not be the last we
see of Hally Scion… she may have gained vast powers by being killed by the bite
of a leech monster and at the hands of another vicious evil who may have
remained JUST off-screen… stay tuned… “Ax and Hacx #1 coming your way soon…)
Evil scarecrow moon in the sky
Now we see where Stan is: in a
rowboat headed for…?
His rowboat has the number “PT
109”… kind of an esoteric joke here… John F. Kennedy’s little torpedo boat was
a PT boat, nicknamed “Devil Boats” by the Japanese.44
Page 22 panel 1 this is another
impossible-magic window gag. Outside their window is a cosmic “sea” with fish
swimming about… but it’s really those awesome “Air Swimmers”, helium filled
dirigibles that send a shark or Nemo actually flying around your house: super
fun (and not too hard to control)
Jesse gets a dial
tone: these are the actual notes of an American dial tone: an A and an F
(supposedly the A is a “Concert A” and you can use it to tune!
Panel 2 “Technical Difficulties, please
stand by…” this kind of announcement was at the same time stirring and
terrifying to me as a kid: it was a little behind the scenes time, special
time, provisional time… but it also could have meant “monsters are on their
way…”
Grab your chaplets,
boys, we’re heading back to Paradise!” one of my favorite Jesse lines! I’ve
been waiting all series to say this!
We see the room now
full of clouds like Heaven, but also with bogus fake clouds hung up on strings.
From catholiccompany.com:
“Chaplets: Similar to the rosary, a chaplet, sometimes
called a chaplet rosary, is another form of keeping track of your prayers on a
set of beads. A chaplet is often a personal devotion to Mary, the Saints or
Jesus, with corresponding prayers depending on your intention. Catholic saint
or devotional chaplets come in a variety of colors, sizes and materials.
Oftentimes the chaplet you are praying will contain a crucifix
or medal of the saint the chaplet is devoted to. The chaplet is another great
prayer tradition found within the Catholic Church, and a variety of chaplets
are available for personal devotion.”
Panel 3 this was
one of the first thoughts we had: when Jesse ever did walk out on the streets,
humans could not handle it46: they all want to go up to him; grass
grows on the asphalt and sidewalks under his feet; flowers grow and spread
(although we see they are our friends the naughty pansies, also escaping out
into the world.
We see a taxi crashes upon seeing him; water flows onto the
dry rocks and streets (because the taxi destroyed a fire-hydrant; the cop has
badge number 666, his star is an upside down pentagram (I forget what his hat
has, maybe a scary gryphon?)
A well to do new york lady drops her brown eggs and kombucha
(Asian Pear and Ginger flavor) from whole foods
And of course the little boy’s knicks jersey says “Ax Hacx”
(and his shoes have pentagrams)
Page 23 Jojo did
another whacky full page spread, with more sequelae of Jesse going out into the
streets: crazy lighted gardens and mushrooms; scary people in trees and bikes
and cars; one tough guy has a Mario tattoo; one in a tree looks like another
jehovah’s witness;
Birds and bats fly by; the two cars are old cars we used to
have (a green Kia and a red Grand Caravan) with our old license plates (my
youngest asked for a car license plate that said “NOTACAR” when he was 10…)
The woman is
Angelica, the Doorkeeper, whom we’ll meet in the post-scriptum issue…
And everybody is
following Jesse, their prophet: I take special joy in writing these crazy
prophecies, scriptures, epigrams… I get to just riff on surreal absurdist
religious preachings, that get progressively more and more sinister and
dangerous (or even deadly…) each teaching can sound like it has some deep
meaning, but each one takes pride in going NOWHERE, and advancing nothing. Here
are the teachings of the Man of Sorrows:
“Come with me,
everyone who has lost, everyone who has cried.
For when I come, the shadows depart. I changed sunset
into sunrise, then back again. I will change your sad song to a disillusioned
cantata.
I am the gentle stream. Fear not that roaring sound around
the bend: for no one may achieve the storyland below without they first pass
over the mighty waterfall of faith.
The leaves of grass wave to me.
I am the blue and the purple: the ice castle and the fireplace
inside the ice castle.
I am the king of Love: plant me in your garden, and climb my
branches to heaven.
No man can follow me: only walk my way, behind me, across
the bottomless water.
I am the highway, on which we can ride forever to the Most
Holy Place. But take heed: the way has never been revealed, not even to me,
though I know all things.
You did not know you had a brother, who lives in the hidden
land: the map was given to Moses, who hid it for me to find… in the storied
land.
“For I am The Man of
Sorrows, sayer of words only the dead can hear.” Remember I told you this.
And if your heart is as cold and hard as a stone, I will
make you weep and laugh and dance in confusion.
For if you believe in me, you will not see, even if you are
dead. You will not hear, even if you are not deaf and not listening. Heed my
word, for all who hear it go mad from the flood of jumbled images, commands,
and promises: I promise you will keep your mind.
And if you hear me praying in the next room, be thou sure there
are daemons nearby.”
(n.b. we LOVE Storyland, NH, it’s our favorite children’s
amusement park;
And I know I wrote “even if you are not dead” instead of
“deaf” on the book: not sure which I like better though…)
Page 24 here are the appendices
referred to in the book (breaking the 4th wall!)
Appendix 1: it is a
very freaky thing to me that non-humans can have trials in human courts of law:
humans are called “natural persons” and corporations, etc. are called juridical
persons. The sons of God are a corporation, and, interestingly, do NOT have the
“right to love or be loved” (as in the
old Star Trek Original Series episode “Who Mourns for Adonais?” where
Kirk asks “Would it have hurt us, I wonder, just to have gathered a
few laurel leaves?”)
The idea of a declaration
of universal human rights is fascinating45: here is the list on the
appendix:
Appendix 1. Jurisprudence: natural persons (i.e.
real human beings) vs juridical persons (also called juridic, juristic,
artificial, or fictitious persons). Full fundamental human rights are only
granted to natural persons. i.e. a
corporation does not share all our inalienable human rights on Earth: most
specifically, a corporation does not have the right to love or to be loved.
exhibit 1: THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the UNITED
NATIONS proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS:
Article 1. All human beings are born free and
equal in dignity and rights.
Article 2. All human beings are entitled to all
the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of
any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other
opinion, national or social origin, property, birth etc.
Article 3. All human beings have the right to
life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4. No human being shall be held in
slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all
their forms.
Article 5. No human being shall be subjected to
torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6. Every human being has the right to
recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Article 7. All human beings are equal before the
law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.
Article 8. Every human being has the right to an
effective remedy by the competent national tribunals.
Article 9. No human being shall be subjected to
arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10. Every human being is entitled in
full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal.
Article 11. (1) Every human being charged with a
penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty
Article 12. No human being shall be subjected to
arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence.
Article 13. (1) Every human being has the right
to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Every human being has the right to leave any country, including his
own, and to return to his country.
Article 14. Every human being has the right to
seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
Article 15. Every human being has the right to a
nationality.
Article 16. (1) Men and women of full age,
without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to
marry and to found a family. (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the
free and full consent of the intending spouses.
Article 17.
Every human being has the right to own property alone as well as in
association with others.
Article 18. Every human being has the right to
freedom of thought, conscience and religion;
Article 19. Every human being has the right to
freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas
through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20.
Every human being has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and
association.
Article 21. (1) Every human being has the right
to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely
chosen representatives. (2)The will of the people shall be the basis of the
authority of government
Article 22. Every human being, as a member of
society, has the right to social security and economic, social and cultural
rights
Article 23. Every human being has the right to
work, has the right to equal pay for equal work, to just and favourable
remuneration, and to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his
interests.
Article 24. All human beings have the right to
rest and leisure, reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic paid
holidays
Article 25. (1) Every human being has the right
to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of his family,
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance
(whether born in or out of wedlock)
Article 26. (1) All human beings have the right
to free education, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages.
Elementary education shall be compulsory. (2) Parents have a prior right to
choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
Article 27. (1) Every human being has the right
freely to participate in the cultural life of the community. (2) Every human
being has the right to the protection of any scientific, literary or artistic
production of which he is the author.
Article 28. All human beings are entitled to a
free and fair social and international order.
Article 29. Every human being has duties to the
community in which alone the free development of his personality is possible.
Article 30. Nothing above may be interpreted as
any right to destroy any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
Appendix 2 this is the missing part of Stan’s
phone conversation with reporter Hally Scion. Stan can go on all day arguing
with people about their beliefs, the state of the World, Society, the poorest
people… but we decided to spare people from reading one of these (it slowed
things down and may have been a little preachy…47
Here is a mock Google Voice recording and
transcript of their conversation: it contains points from both sides, mostly
academic/intellectual/upper middle class points about how religion and
terrorism are born from economic and social inequity in Europe etc. blab la bla…
failure to assimilate, etc. none of these “smarter than thou” arguments can
help anyone or anything… on their own. It gets tiresome hearing experts
rationalize things with answers as if theye had been verified and pronounced
the correct/true reasons… almost as tiresome as well-off people being too bored
by these same arguments (hey, waitaminnit: am I talking about ME again? Aaagh!)
here are my notes for the notes:
“and
they wonder why storytelling is a lost art…alright, lemme try a simpler
narrative…*
See appendix 2, Google
Translate transcription, 716-776-2323 phone call, 10/1/2014 9:11 EDT
haven’t you noticed things getting more
screwed up than usual these past few decades?/
recently?
mass suffering around the
world. constant multi-national proxy wars in the Bible Lands;
countries overturned,governments overthrown Why would hundreds
of little schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria/ whole dispossessed
populations slaughtered, mutilated or starved in Somalia? Can you
tell me why?
Oh I dunno: Political and social
injustice in the 3rd world/ perceived social, political or historical injustice?
The belief that violence
will be effective in bringing change? Group psychology? narcissistic rage...
oh, it’s all so clear now!: poverty
and disenfranchisement in the 3rd world… disillusionment in the
second world … failure of non-assimilation of
immigrants in Europe/ the First World/ the west… why
didn’t I think of that?/ it’s so simple! it’s not as
simple as third world extremist theism, or second world panem et circus:
Listen, Nellie, it’s not that simple: how is it that in America, Religiously
based psychological intimidation and indoctrination has never been bigger?
Religious teachings and broadcasts are piped down their throats as absolute
truth. They subjugate people through peer pressure and fear. Children are only
allowed to learn the points of view of their home sect. People never
learn how to critically evaluate news and information, never allowed to form
their own beliefs or morals, so they always depend on their religious leaders
to tell them what’s right and wrong. Religions pour resources into the
race for most constituents worldwide/ scramble to sign up third world members,
and don’t get me started on the threat of Hell...
At least we’ll always have Europe
for equality/at least they have equality in Europe...”
“Oh yeah! the Olde World
discriminates equally against all minorities... Muslims and Jews…”
“So, what we need is /you’re
recommending/ need state-enforced Atheism?”
“Might as well try to stop
the tide, or put a redwood back in its seed. or take
iphones out of teenagers’ hands and back into Steve Jobs’ head.
“So why is Derek Frost such a
big threat?”
Imagine you’re a JW. You know
you’re one of the 144000, you’ve done everything right, but the world pees all
over you, your own church rejects you… you’re never getting to Heaven until the
Apocalypse comes to pass on Earth, which was guaranteed to happen in 1914...
then in 1918, 1925, 1975. Each time your Church predicts Armaggeddon, everyone
is let down. a long series of false alarms. The JW’s believe October 2, 2014 is
the new date for the End Times: exactly 100 years after Jesus’ reign in Heaven,
and the signs are all around us.
“Another false alarm?”
“What/Not if you’ve found the
way to make the prophecies finally come true this time? You can finally get to
heaven, fulfill your life’s meaning, by destroying all life as we know it.”
“This sounds like a cheap/bad
comic book pitch...”
“Stay with me: now what if
there was a living nightmare, swimming freely between the 7 seas… capable of
annihilating ALL life as we know it? What if this monster was the mighty
prophet Leviathan?
From the book of Job?
he only wishes he was a prophet.
basically, his whole plan is to try to get people to climb into his mouth.”
“Who would ever do that?”
“Oh, people will believe some
whacky shit. The Christians taught that all the damned souls had to pass/ damned
got to hell by passing through the Hellmouth: through Leviathan’s gaping
maw. ‘If you want to live forever, get in ma belluh!’’
“that’s crazy…”
well, Godly people about all
believe they are damned at one point or another: self reproach about
masochistic self-recrimination about guilt, especially the Catholics… So
Leviathan had himself an unlimited, self-renewing prepaid meal-ticket: the
souls of guilty hell-fearing Christians. Till God punished Leviathan, and now
he swims aimlessly waiting for someone to reawaken his power, and let him
multiply and overrun the world…”
“Derek?”
Bla-bla-bla so Derek found
the secret ritual in a very special rare Bible from 1611. let’s say it involves
Leviathan’s favorite food: disgraced apostate priests: Oooh, he loves
excommunicated prelates! he can go a long time on a fallen preacher, when he
can get one: the eviler the better!
But every religion has
saviors watching over us.
Yes, but Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Hold on, I’m getting another call…
Back inner sleeve oh,
another great guy… pope Francis… don’t get me started… everyone all acrost the
world, bowing and scraping at his feet, news reporters, politicians… it’s
embarrassing (sickening, really) if he is going to do some good, good! Have at
it! Go DO something. But it is all about consolidating power for the church,
self-aggrandizing (“ooooh, but he sleeps on a simple cot… oooh, but he said
less harsh shit about gay marriage…”)
“I could be wrong… oh, wait: no I can’t!” the bizarre Catholic
concept of Papal Infallibility…
Sepp Blatter, the (finally) disgraced head of FIFA, finally
busted for blatant soccer corruption, who thought he was untouchable
“Hey, all you Dagos, get off the grass!” I heard this joke
and the word “Dago” many times growing up (the Pope blessing the unwashed
Italians outside the Vatican is really yelling at them to get off the grass).
The worst thing I heard this latest charlatan say was when
he warmly renounced the comic book artists in Paris who were shot by Radical
Islamic Terrorists, for provoking their own murders48. Holy crap! I
can’t even… yes, Charlie Hebdo were a bunch of idiots… but they were OUR
idiots. Just pathetic losers writing and drawing stupid puerile cartoons: they
were our citizens, our society, our relatives: thrown under the Papal bus
(remember the old Pope-mobile?) by our most holy pontiff, who is just a kind,
loving guy, isn’t he?
Now I know full well I’m kind of singling out Il Papa… so
many people say and do so much worse things… and Sage Francis does a good bit
of good works (more than me, I’m sure… although I try in my own small way…) but
his is THE voice of not just Catholicism… but, for some reason, by default THE
voice of ALL Christianity (there are no protestant leaders nor Baptists nor
Quakers, God forbid…) and there seems to be a monolithic machine keeping this
power system: current church leaders and policies are so entrenched and in bed
with politicians, that they are unassailable: theyare unquestioned, one might
even say “infallible”…
Gasbarri yo mama jokes: this was inevitable, wasn’t it?
Watch the video, it’s frankly theater of the absurd48. He’s
basically DARING Gasbarri to insult his mama…
Jesus NEVER runs out of loaves and fishes: it’s like a
bottomless basket
The swiss guard… don’t even get me started on the Pope’s
“body guards”… 49
“Why are you buying this comic book? You know it makes fun
of religion, right?...” poking fun at ourselves again… I hope we never got too
full of ourselves to realize it’s all just a silly comic book after all…
“And not just my religion, EVERYBODY’s religion, even
made-up non-existant imaginary religions with ridiculous gods and
eschatologies, (like the non-christians believe in…)” that’s our whole mission statement, in a
nutshell! The final image is the Pope as the little guy from Home Alone.
Back Cover: and
yes, now it’s Frankie’s turn to be on our watchtower back covers! We love Frank
Miller, but he makes it pretty hard, sometimes… with his wild rantings, he
seemed pretty cra-cra back at the time of this writing…!
We see there are now 143, 998 sould up in heaven. The colors
of this month’s virtue/vice (Sloth/diligence) are light blue/green. Frank is
here railing against us lazy slobs who live in our parents’ basements, who
don’t go join the army to fight terrorism, who protest and do tent-in’s at
libraries, etc.
Of course he is being Uncle Sam, and the drawing is a
mixture of his greatest Batman cover, and Uncle Sam, and Frank himself…50,
51, 52, 53
It’s that same problematic argument: when an artist you
admire turns out to say/do/believe some crazy, hurtful shit. Do you have to
stop liking the artist? Their old work? What do you do with the big problems
they have? Frank has been accused (by people like Alan Moore for instance) of
being a misogynist (maybe, but he abuses male and female characters alike and
seems to be a champion of female heroes: see Martha Washington…) of glorifying
violence (uh… well…) of being homophobic (I don’t see this one either, he is
pretty forward-thinking on gay/straight issues and he said “Batman would
probably be much healthier if he were gay”) and of being an islamaphobe (probably true, see “Holy
Terror”…)
It’s a little easier for me to give Frank Miller some slack
on these issues: I believe he was whacky to start with, then he got messed up,
major-league messed up, by Sept 11th, and he went into full-blown
crazy mode. But I’ve known a lot of crazy people, and usually it’s not their
fault, they’re not trying to be jerks.
Back in 2011, Frank had some strong takes on the state of
the State, with Occupy Wall-street, etc. he posted some hyperactive thoughts on
his blog:
“Everybody's been too damn polite
about this nonsense:The "Occupy" movement, whether displaying itself on Wall Street or in the streets of Oakland (which has, with unspeakable cowardice, embraced it) is anything but an exercise of our blessed First Amendment. "Occupy" is nothing but a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists, an unruly mob, fed by Woodstock-era nostalgia and putrid false righteousness. These clowns can do nothing but harm America.
"Occupy" is nothing short of a clumsy, poorly-expressed attempt at anarchy, to the extent that the "movement" – HAH! Some "movement", except if the word "bowel" is attached - is anything more than an ugly fashion statement by a bunch of iPhone, iPad wielding spoiled brats who should stop getting in the way of working people and find jobs for themselves.
This is no popular uprising. This is garbage. And goodness knows they're spewing their garbage – both politically and physically – every which way they can find.
Wake up, pond scum. America is at war against a ruthless enemy.
Maybe, between bouts of self-pity and all the other tasty tidbits of narcissism you've been served up in your sheltered, comfy little worlds, you've heard terms like al-Qaeda and Islamicism.
And this enemy of mine - not of yours, apparently - must be getting a dark chuckle, if not an outright horselaugh - out of your vain, childish, self-destructive spectacle.
In the name of decency, go home to your parents, you losers. Go back to your mommas' basements and play with your Lords Of Warcraft.
Or better yet, enlist for the real thing. Maybe our military could whip some of you into shape.
They might not let you babies keep your iPhones, though. Try to soldier on.
Schmucks.
FM”
Now it is SUPER easy to lampoon a character like Frank
Miller saying such whackiness: spewing such ridiculous vitriol, i.e. this is as
easy as “shooting fish in a barrel”… believe me, I felt a little like the
lawyer going after Humphrey Bogart’s crazy captain in “The Caine Mutiny”…
So the parody is about all the different invaders taking
over Galilee (Jesus’ stomping grounds) over the centuries… about some hack
warning everyone that this little parcel of land was going to be invaded:
ruh-roh! Phonecians, Arabs, Ottomans, British, Israelis…54
And how frank is berating protestors about not joining the
army, when he only does make-believe battles of small numbers of men fighting
against huge odds (47 ronin, 300 spartans, etc…)
And Frank advises everyone to “Stop buying this crappy
comic!”
Thing is, we met Frank Miller a few years after this epic
meltdown, at a comicon. And he was the nicest old man to jojo; talking to him
about art, encouraging him… god knows I have said and continue to say some
whacky shit sometimes… sorry for hurting people… I’m not trying to be hurtful…
guess we all gotta work through some things and try to get better and kinder
all the time
(p.s. but I’m not going back to see any more Matt Damon
movies, after his comments denigrating/minimizing/refuting the accounts of
women who were abused by powerful men in Hollywood… “Downsizing” the trauma and
sexual abuse… disgusting mansplaining troll… as one woman said, “you can’t tell
a woman about their abuse. A man cannot do that. No one can.” but I digress…)55,
56
Footnotes:
1) Jain Symbols from Wikipedia: The hand with a wheel on
the palm symbolizes Ahimsa in Jainism. The word in the middle is
"ahiṃsā" (non-injury). The wheel represents the dharmachakra,
which stands for the resolve to halt the saṃsāra
through the relentless pursuit of Ahimsa.
Jain emblem
In 1974, on the auspicious 2500th anniversary of the nirvana of the
last Jain Tirthankara, Mahavira, the
Jain community at large collectively chose one image as an emblem to be the
main identifying symbol for Jainism. Since then, this emblem is used in almost all of
Jain magazines,
on wedding cards, on Jain festival cards and in magazines
with links to events related to Jain society.
Jain philosophy is the oldest Indian philosophy
that separates body (matter) from the soul (consciousness) completely.[1]
Jain philosophy deals with reality, cosmology, epistemology
(study of knowledge) and Vitalism. The concept of non-injury or ahiṃsā
lies at the core of Jain philosophy. Jain philosophy attempts to explain the
rationale of being and existence, the nature of the Universe and its
constituents, the nature of bondage and the means to achieve liberation.
2) Humanism is a philosophical and ethical stance
that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings,
individually and collectively, and generally prefers critical
thinking and evidence (rationalism and empiricism)
over acceptance of dogma
or superstition.
The meaning of the term humanism has fluctuated according to the
successive intellectual movements which have identified with it.[1]
The term was coined by theologian Friedrich Niethammer at the beginning
of the 19th
century to refer to a system of education based on the study of classical
literature ("classical humanism"). Generally, however, humanism
refers to a perspective that affirms some notion of human freedom and
progress.In modern times, humanist movements are typically non-religious movements aligned with secularism, and today humanism typically refers to a nontheistic life stance centred on human agency and looking to science rather than revelation from a supernatural source to understand the world.[2][3]
3) The phrase the "religion of humanity" is sometimes attributed to American Founding Father Thomas Paine, though as yet unattested in his surviving writings. According to Tony Davies:
Paine called himself a theophilanthropist, a word combining the Greek for "God", "love", and "humanity", and indicating that while he believed in the existence of a creating intelligence in the universe, he entirely rejected the claims made by and for all existing religious doctrines, especially their miraculous, transcendental and salvationist pretensions. The Parisian "Society of Theophilanthropy" which he sponsored, is described by his biographer as "a forerunner of the ethical and humanist societies that proliferated later" ... [Paine's book] the trenchantly witty Age of Reason (1793) ... pours scorn on the supernatural pretensions of scripture, combining Voltairean mockery with Paine's own style of taproom ridicule to expose the absurdity of a theology built on a collection of incoherent Levantine folktales.[50]
4) http://nyclovesnyc.blogspot.com/2011/09/national-september-11-memorial-911.html
The National
September 11 Memorial or 9/11 Memorial opened to the public last September 12.
The memorial is a tribute of remembrance and honor to the nearly 3,000 people
killed in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center
site, near Shanksville, Pa., and at the Pentagon, as well as the six people
killed in the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993.
The Memorial’s twin reflecting pools are each nearly an acre
in size and feature the largest manmade waterfalls in the North America. The
pools sit within the footprints where the Twin Towers once stood. Architect
Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker created the Memorial design
selected from a global design competition that included more than 5,200 entries
from 63 nations.
The names of every person who died in the 2001 and 1993
attacks are inscribed into bronze panels edging the Memorial pools, a powerful
reminder of the largest loss of life resulting from a foreign attack on
American soil and the greatest single loss of rescue personnel in American
history.
5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyez
The term is still in use by the Supreme Court of the United States.
At the beginning of each session, the marshal of the Court (Court Crier)
announces: "The Honorable, the Chief Justice and the Associate Justices of
the Supreme Court of the United States. Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! All persons having
business before the Honorable, the Supreme Court of the United States, are
admonished to draw near and give their attention, for the Court is now sitting.
God save the United States and this Honorable Court."[5][6]
6) https://definitions.uslegal.com/i/in-re/
In re is commonly used in probate proceedings. It is also used in juvenile
courts. Sometimes in re is used for a proceeding where one party makes an
application to the court without necessarily charging an adversary. This may be
done, for example, where a couple seeks to adopt a child or an adult wants to
change his or her name. In re is also used in the title or name of a case where
the proceeding is in rem or quasi in rem and not in personam and occasionally
in the title of an ex parte proceeding.
In many cases, fundamental human rights are implicitly granted only to natural persons. For example, the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states a person cannot be denied the right to vote based on their biological sex, or Section Fifteen of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees equality rights, apply to natural persons only. Another example of the distinction between natural and legal persons is that a natural person can hold public office, but a corporation cannot.
A corporation or non-governmental organization can, however, file a lawsuit or own property as a legal person.
9) file:///C:/Users/Owner/AppData/Local/Temp/Hobby%20Lobby%20and%20the%20Pathology%20of%20Citizens%20United-1.pdf
Four years ago, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission1 held that for-profit corporations possess a First Amendment right to make independent campaign expenditures. In so doing, the United States Supreme Court invited speculation that such corporations might possess other First Amendment rights as well.2 The petitioners in Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius3 are now arguing that for-profit corporations are among the intended beneficiaries of the Free Exercise Clause4 and, along with the respondents in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, 5 that they also qualify as “persons” under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).6
In holding that for-profit corporations possess a First Amendment right to make independent campaign expenditures, Citizens United struck down a federal law as unconstitutional, overruled one prior decision in its entirety, and scrapped a substantial portion of another.10 The Court insisted that these earlier decisions had been anomalies and that other precedent dictated the holding in Citizens United. As a matter of reading precedent, this was puzzling.
10) ancient coin collecting III, wayne sayles
11) http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/abb.html
12) “Caligula” is a nickname. It means “little boot”[3] in Latin, because as a child he wore a miniature military uniform including tiny hobnailed boots, much to the delight of his father’s veteran legionaries. He grew up to dislike the nickname. His given name, which appears on his coins, variously abbreviated, was Gaius (or Caius) Julius Caesar Germanicus. “Caesar” here is not a title, but a personal name, inherited through Germanicus Julius Caesar, grandson of Emperor Augustus, the adopted son of the famous Julius Caesar (100 – 44 BCE).
13) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caligula#Scandals
14) http://www.thejourneyhomegenealogy.com/dictionary-of-quaker-terms-and-phrases-part-1/
Acknowledgement: Apology by an offending
member.
Advices: Ideals stated as a continuing
reminder of the basic faith and principles.
Affirm(ation): A legal declaration as
opposed to swearing an oath.
Birthright Member: The child of Quakers
recorded at birth on the membership rolls.
Center(ing) Down: An endeavor to quite
restless thoughts and open the heart in order to hear the Spirit speak
directly.
Centered: The state of an individual or
group in touch with the divine presence.
Children of Light: A name which early
Quakers called themselves.
Christ Within: That of God in everybody.
The Inward (Inner) Light.
Clearness: Confidence that an action is
consistent with the divine will.
Concern: A spiritual principle or thought
brought before a group of Meeting to be tested as truth.
Consistent Friend: Members who are
particularly obedient to the outward testimonies.
Convinced Friend: A person who becomes a
member of a Monthly Meeting.
Disorderly Walker: Members of a Meeting who
are deemed to be acting contrary to the Truth and the Way.
Disownment/Disunity:
Termination of membership.
Elder(ing): When used as a verb, “to elder”
it is can be used to encourage a member. When used “been eldered” this is to
bring into question an individual’s behavior.
Exercise: The exploration of a deep concern
that has been brought to a Meeting.
Gathered (Covered) Meeting: A worshipping
group when the presence of God is felt.
Hold in the Light: To ask for God’s
presence to illumine a person, situation or problem.
In right ordering: Meaning in accordance
with Friends practices.
Inward (Inner) Light: This Inner Light
guides and directs each person bringing a unity with the Spirit of God. It is a
direct, unmediated experience with the Divine.
m:
marry, married, marrying, marriage, month
ma: marriage authorized
mbr: member
mbrp: membership
mcd: married contrary to Discipline
MG: minister of the Gospel
MH: meeting house, church
mi: miles
MM: monthly meeting
mos: married out of society
mou: married out of unity
mt: married to
mtg: meeting
mvd: moved
n:
north
na: not attending meeting
neg att: neglecting attendance
ni: not identified
nm: non member
nmn: no middle name
NW Terr: Northwest Territory
O:
Orthodox (Ohio)
ou: out of unity
PM: particular or preparative meeting
PO: post office address
prc: produced a certificate
prcf: produced a certificate from
prob: probably
Qkr: Quaker
QM: quarterly meeting
rcd: recorded
rec/rcd: receive, received
recrq: received by request
relfc: released from care for
relrq: released by request
rem: remove(d), removal certificate
ret: returned, retired
ret mbrp: retained membership
rev: reversed
rm: reported married
rmt: reported married to
roc: received on certificate
rocf: received on certificate from
rol: received on letter
rolf: received on letter from
rpd: reported
rq: request, requests, requested
rqc: requested certificate
rqct: requested certificate to
rqcuc: requested to come under care (of mtg)
rqlt: requested letter to
rrq: request, requests, requested
rst: reinstate(d)
rtco: referred to care of
s:
son, south
sep: separated
sis: sister
temp: temporarily
transfrd: transferred
twp: township
uc: under care (of mtg)
unm: unmarried
upl: using profane language
w:
wife, west
w/c: with consent of
wid: widow
w/pwr: with power
wrkd: worked
y:
year
YM: yearly meeting
Rightly Ordered: Those procedures for the conduct of Friends business, that
encourage a Meeting to carry out its corporate activities under divine leading.
Seasoning: Taking the time to seek the Light rather than moving into
a matter hastily.
Settled: All together under the leading of the Spirit.
Speak to One’s Condition: The experience of receiving a message directly from
God or through another person, that touches another person at a deep, helps one
solve a problem or make a right decision.
Standing Aside: An action taken by an individual who has reservations
about a particular decision, but who also recognizes the decision is clearly
supported by the Meeting.
Standing in the Way: A person who feels a spirit led objection to a decision or
proposed action of the Meeting may stand in the way, thus preventing further
action.
Stop in the Mind: An expression used by Friends when they feel uneasy and
cannot follow a course of action.
A stop: Rather than a leading to do something, a stop is the sense
that a Friend should not do something.
Testimony: 1) A positive testimony to God in the case of a deceased
friend; 2) A special testimony of concern for a specific matter; 3) A testimony
of disownment or disunity; 4) When used as “Testimonies,” this includes the
Quaker principles of equality, peace, simplicity and truth.
Thee was favored: The preferred phrase for one Friend to offer another when
their ministry has seemed particularly powerful and Spirit filled.
Threshing Session: A Meeting to consider in depth a controversial issue, but
in a way that is free from the necessity of reaching a decision.
Travelling Friends: Also called Ministering Preachers or Visiting Preachers
would hold gatherings where they would preach of their experience of the inward
Christ.Travel(ing) Minute: The endorsement a Meeting gives to one
of its members who is traveling under weight of a concern to other Meetings or
to the wider world.
Truth: 1) Christ or the divine guide; 2) The Quaker ethical
tradition.
Waiting upon God: Actively seeking and attending to God’s will in expectant
silent worship.
15) They, with Jesus, will also perform priestly duties that will bring
faithful mankind to perfect health and 'everlasting life'.[14]
They believe that most of those are already in heaven, and that the
"remnant" at Revelation 12:17 (KJV) refers to those remaining alive
on earth who will be immediately resurrected to heaven when they die. The
Witnesses understand Jesus’ words at John 3:3—"except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God"—to apply to the 144,000 who are
"born again" as "anointed" sons of God in heaven.[15]
They teach that the New Testament, which they refer to as the Christian Greek
Scriptures, is primarily directed to the 144,000, and by extension, to those
associated with them.[16]
They believe that the terms "Israel of God" (Galatians 6:16),
"little flock" (Luke 12:32), "New Jerusalem," and "the
bride,
the Lamb's wife" (Revelation 21:2,9) in the New
Testament also refer to the same group of "anointed" Christians.[17][18][19]16)https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/startrek/images/8/88/Praxis_explosion.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20080820175017
17) WWF legend Piper, who died this week at 61, plays Nada, a transient construction worker whose name we only know from the credits. He wanders into town looking for work, and instead stumbles upon an alien plot to control humanity using consumerism. These aliens are really ugly things with formaldehyde faces, all scarred and piebald like syphilis victims. They hide among the denizens of Los Angeles, working white-collar jobs, controlling the television stations, embedding their insidious subliminal messages in billboards, magazines, advertisements — Obey. Consume. Watch TV. Marry and reproduce. Nada finds a pair of plastic sunglasses that tear down the veneer, exposing the ghouls and cryptograms in black and white, which lends They Live a B-movie air.
21) https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/activities/ministry/training-evangelizers-seventy-years/
22) http://jwfacts.com/watchtower/experiences/michael-jackson-jehovah.php
"In another popular video, Thriller, the
performer is seen to transform first into a "cat person," then a
dancing "monster." Evidently not wanting viewers to conclude that it
promoted spiritism, the film begins with the disclaimer: "Due to my strong
personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses a
belief in the occult.-Michael Jackson." Nevertheless, it was so realistic
that some who saw it admitted that they were horrified at first. What was this
short film intended to convey? And how does the performer, Michael Jackson,
feel about it in looking back? "I would never do it again!" says
Jackson. "I just intended to do a good, fun short film, not to purposely
bring to the screen something to scare people or to do anything bad. I want to
do what's right. I would never do anything like that again." Why not?
"Because a lot of people were offended by it," explains Jackson.
"That makes me feel bad. I don't want them to feel that way. I realize now
that it wasn't a good idea. I'll never do a video like that again!" He
continues: "In fact, I have blocked further distribution of the film over
which I have control, including its release in some other countries. There's
all kinds of promotional stuff being proposed on Thriller. But I tell them,
'No, no, no. I don't want to do anything on Thriller. No more
Thriller.'"" Awake!1984 May 22 pp.19-20
28, 29) http://culturenow.org/entry&permalink=03047&seo=Gargoyles-on-90-West-Street_Cass-Gilbert
, http://culturenow.org/entry&permalink=03047&seo=Gargoyles-on-90-West-Street_Cass-Gilbert
30) “But the plans were on display…”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”
"Bruce Almighty" - God's number,
555-0123 (eventually) - I did not like "Bruce Almighty" at all --
I felt they took a can't-miss comedy premise and missed badly -- but the story
of the 555 number in the movie is an interesting one.
In the theatrical release, God contacts Bruce Almighty via his pager, using the number 776-2323. (Which wasn't tied in to Jim Carrey's movie "The Number 23" later on in a big missed opportunity.) The movie was set in Buffalo, so the producers checked to make sure that 716-776-2323 was clear. It was. But... no area code was given in the film -- which led to tons of people from calling 776-2323 in whatever area code they happened to be in.
33) http://www.losdoggies.com/archives/1206 The telephone is a tuner, microphone, and synthesizer
rolled into one. Its dial tone plays a Concert A for easy tuning, its receiver
can blast your singing voice to anywhere in the world, and its 12 tones can
play a real dissonant tune. You may recognize the melody of your home phone #
among these black stemmed noteheads. It’s like sonar baby!In the theatrical release, God contacts Bruce Almighty via his pager, using the number 776-2323. (Which wasn't tied in to Jim Carrey's movie "The Number 23" later on in a big missed opportunity.) The movie was set in Buffalo, so the producers checked to make sure that 716-776-2323 was clear. It was. But... no area code was given in the film -- which led to tons of people from calling 776-2323 in whatever area code they happened to be in.
The telephone uses DTMF (Dual Tone Multiple Frequency) signaling―the most commonly used signaling system today. Each signaling digit (1-9, *, O, #) consists of two tones played together. Thus, a touch-tone phone is actually a touch-chord phone. These frequencies are notated above with the nearest note in Equal Temperament Tuning. Take a look at this handy graph!
I’m not sure how intentional this bitonality was, but certainly the dial tone being a perfect Concert A at 440 hz is no coincidence. The lower F was most likely selected to create a Major Third interval―an open consonance that would sooth the caller while they hung on the line. Major thirds are also found in bells, car-horns, convenience stores, and all around the American soundscape.
I suggest you click this dial tone on, and go take yourself a touch-tone solo above. Call your childhood home. Call your lover’s land-line. Call Loveline. It’s almost intentional how aleatoric this phone jam is. Is this Life, or Music? Feel the awfulness of the bitones and their schizophonic dissonances. (For instance, it’s much easier to ignore the lower tones, and just play “Hot Cross Buns” on the top tones.)
And don’t forget about the busy tone Tyrone! The busy tone is somewhere between a B and a Bb, with a D# on top―a Major third interval just like the dial tone, except the busy tone pulses.
34) https://youtu.be/5bLw6bREcbU
the survivor tree!
36) far arden! https://youtu.be/Wl7pQIKt9N8
37) http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x34axsv speech starts at 2:50
38) old telephones http://mentalfloss.com/article/62876/10-aspects-old-telephones-might-confuse-younger-readers
3
|
It is called a Switch Hook. This is where we get the
terms "on hook" or "off hook" for phone states. Example;
"My phone was ringing off the hook!" |
||||
|
44) from Wikipedia: Nicknamed "the mosquito fleet"
– and "devil boats" by the Japanese – the PT boat squadrons were
heralded for their daring and earned a durable place in the public imagination
that remains strong into the 21st century.
Some
universally recognized rights seen as fundamental, i.e., contained in the United Nations Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the U.N. International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, or the U.N. International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, include the
following:
Not
everyone agrees on what the basic human rights are. Here is a list of some of
the most recognized ones:
Right
to privacy
Right
to live
Right
to marriage and family
To
own property
Safety
from violence
Fair trial
To
be considered innocent until proven guilty
To
be a citizen of a country
To
be recognized as a person
The
right to express his or her sexual
orientation
To
communicate through a language
Not
be forced into marriage
The
right to love and to be loved
The
right to work
The
right to express oneself
46) here are
the script notes: “Jesse steps out
“Ah, my
people!” people follow in throngs: cops, taxis, cats, some crawling, prostrate,
etc.
When the Holy Rollers finally step down from
their Ivory Tower, grass grows on the asphalt: vines sprout and flowers bloom
under their feet. Everywhere they pass, people throw themselves at their feet,
overwhelmed, and unable to process their white-hot emotions: they speak in
tongues, tear off their clothes, and weep to their cores. Fire hydrants erupt, some march like kids in
parade, some are stunned”
49) from Wikipedia: Foreign military service was outlawed by
the revised Swiss Federal Constitution of 1874, with
the only exception being the Pontifical Swiss Guard (Latin:
Pontificia Cohors Helvetica,
Cohors Pedestris Helvetiorum a Sacra Custodia Pontificis; Italian:
Guardia Svizzera Pontificia)
stationed in Vatican City. The modern Papal Swiss Guard serves as
both a ceremonial unit and a bodyguard. Established in 1506, it is one
of the oldest military units in the world.
51) https://io9.gizmodo.com/5859038/frank-miller-slams-occupy-wall-street-becomes-a-parody-of-himself
55) https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/12/19/matt-damon-said-theres-sexual-violence-spectrum-so-have-women-so-why-outcry/962369001/ "Louis C.K. is not so funny that we
have to allow him in the world of comedy otherwise there's going to be this
black hole," Service said. "For every one man who has made it to
that point, there are 100 well-qualified, smart, passionate driven women who
have been run out of politics or run out of the entertainment business or run
out of comedy because of the inherent misogyny and harassment and sexism. ...
So we don't need to put up with the predator on any level of the
spectrum."
56) https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/dec/16/minnie-driver-matt-damon-men-cannot-understand-abuse “I honestly think that until we get on the
same page, you can’t tell a woman about their abuse. A man cannot do that. No
one can.
Disclaimer: I am fully
aware of just how Zimsky this is: writing down all these sources and
inspirations and references for… well, for posterity. I know nobody is probably
going to read this, and even less people will care: Well Theyah!
P.P.P.S. Are you still here?! Well then, here’s some of the
footwork I did to be able to reproduce the actual phone number you would have
had to dial back in the 1800’s to call Dunning Asylum: it was a lot of fun to
learn all this early telephone history, and the systems that changed over the
years, through “exchanges” etc. to the final result you see briefly in these
pages: here are my notes on the history of Chicago Telephone numbers:
100) Old Chicago Telephone History (how you would have
called Dunning Asylum way back when…:
**West-934, (7-934) Cook County Insane Asylum, Dunning
The asterisk note reads: Private telephone system. When the
private system operator answers, please give the name of the department or of
the person wanted. For an A.D.T. messenger give your order to the operator.
askalibrarian@chipublib.org
To
thezef@yahoo.com
Sep 16 at 3:28 PM
##- Please reply above this line. Anything below this line will
not be sent in your reply. We do not accept attachments via this reply method
-##
This is a response from the Chicago Public Library's Ask a Librarian service. We are contacting you in reply to your E-mail reference question.
This is a response from the Chicago Public Library's Ask a Librarian service. We are contacting you in reply to your E-mail reference question.
Dear John Picone,
We located the following in an October 1, 1899, Telephone
Directory.
**West-934, Cook County Consumptive Hospital, Dunning
**West-934, Cook County Poor House, Dunning
**West-934, Cook County Insane Asylum, Dunning
The asterisk note reads: Private telephone system. When the
private system operator answers, please give the name of the department or of
the person wanted. For an A.D.T. messenger give your order to the operator.
-----------------------
Question History:
Patron: hi! could you please help me find an old phone number, preferably before 1912, for Dunning? I understand the telephone came to chicago in 1877; also, Dunning Asylum officially closed in 1912 (the reopened as Chicago State Hospital, then later the Chicago-Read Mental Health Center). We'd love to know the oldest possible phone number for Dunning's Mental Health facility for a project we're woring on.
thanks a million!
john picone
Librarian 1: Dear John Picone,
We checked the 1912(published in 1911) and the 1905 Chicago Telephone Directory. We found no listing for Dunning Asylum in the alphabetical section nor any listing in the classified section under Hospital/Asylum.
Patron: I'm sorry, I assumed it would come up under some "mental Health" cross reference because the actual name is confusing: the name has always been a colloquial one: it has always been popularly called "Dunning", but the actual name is less clear:
The complex occupied
320 acres of land between Irving Park Road and Montrose Avenue, stretching west
from Naragansett Avenue to Oak Park Avenue.
It was never actually
named Dunning. But the property just south of it was owned by the Dunning
family — so when the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway extended a line
to the area in 1882, the stop was named Dunning Station. And then people
started calling the institution “Dunning.” (In its early years, people
sometimes called it “Jefferson,” since it’s part of Jefferson Township.)
When it opened in
1854, it wasn’t an insane asylum. The Cook County Infirmary was a “poor farm”
and almshouse. County officials opened its doors to people who had fallen on
hard times and found themselves unable to earn a living.
“They didn’t provide
very many services,” says Joseph J. Mehr, a Springfield clinical psychologist
who wrote about Dunning in his 2002 book, “An Illustrated History of Illinois Public Mental Health Services http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-History-Illinois-Services
-1847-2000/dp/1553952154 .”
“What they really
provided were a place to sleep and food,” he says. “And that was pretty much
the extent of it.”
But from the very
beginning, many of the poor people who were sent to live at the almshouse had
mental illnesses. “In some ways, it’s almost similar to what we have today,”
Mehr says, “in that we have a lot of people who are homeless and living on the
streets, and a significant portion of them are people who are mentally ill.”
So the county added an
“Insane Department” at the almshouse. And then, in 1870, it built a separate
Cook County Insane Asylum on the grounds.
I think chances are highest it would be listed under "Cook COunty Insane Asylum" after 1870, or The Cook COunty Infirmary" between 1854 and 1870
thanks
john picone
--- Previous transcript history deleted ---
Librarian 1: Dear John Picone,
We located the following in an October 1, 1899, Telephone Directory.
**West-934, Cook County Consumptive Hospital, Dunning
**West-934, Cook County Poor House, Dunning
**West-934, Cook County Insane Asylum, Dunning
The asterisk note reads: Private telephone system. When the private system operator answers, please give the name of the department or of the person wanted. For an A.D.T. messenger give your order to the operator.
Thank you for using our service. We hope this information is useful and you will use CPL E-mail Reference in the future.
CPL E-mail Reference Team.
john picone
To
askalibrarian@chipublib.org
Today at 9:33 AM
thanks a million, this is very exciting. Can you tell me what
number a person would have dialed to get those private system operators: ie the
hospital switchboards? did "West-934" imply a certain exchange?>
for example, some old phone numbers only had 4 digits, while in big cities they
had 5 (In 1910 the USA, then a country
with the highest telephone penetration rate, numbered over 7 million
subscribers, which compared to Russia's 155,000. In the days of old an ordinary
telephone number had four digits, while large cities used
five-digit numbers.Jun 18, 2002)
I assume
Chicago had 5 digits in 1910, but was "West" the first 2 digits?
("WE-934" or 93-934?)
this is really
fun, I really appreciate your help and the history lesson!
john
p.s. (from
wbez: The other takeaway is that Chicago’s exchange
names are more than interesting relics of an earlier time: They’re part of the
city’s identity as a collection of neighborhoods.
Operator, please
Let’s go back to the beginning. Chicago’s first telephone
exchange opened in 1878. Then, you actually told the operator the name and
address you were trying to reach. Chicago’s first switchboards were at the
telephone company’s central office downtown, and in two branches at Halsted
Street and Canal Street.
Here’re a few significant dates in the evolution of telephone
numbers:
·
Until 1923,
a dialer would call an operator and ask for the person they wanted to reach by
giving their exchange name or number. Phone numbers were just three or four
digits, with an exchange name tacked
onto the front. Names were sometimes selected to be
memorable or easily understood over the phone. “CALUMET-555,” for example,
could be taken from local Chicago geography).
##- Please reply above this line. Anything below this line will
not be sent in your reply. We do not accept attachments via this reply method
-##
This is a response from the Chicago Public Library's Ask a Librarian service. We are contacting you in reply to your E-mail reference question.
This is a response from the Chicago Public Library's Ask a Librarian service. We are contacting you in reply to your E-mail reference question.
Dear John Picone,
We located the following in an October 1, 1899, Telephone
Directory.
**West-934, Cook County Consumptive Hospital, Dunning
**West-934, Cook County Poor House, Dunning
**West-934, Cook County Insane Asylum, Dunning
The asterisk note reads: Private telephone system. When the
private system operator answers, please give the name of the department or of
the person wanted. For an A.D.T. messenger give your order to the operator.
To
askalibrarian@chipublib.org
Today at 9:46 AM
p.s. or was WEST-934 interpreted as "7-934" for
Telephone Office no. 7?
thanks
john picone
##- Please reply above this line. Anything below this line will
not be sent in your reply. We do not accept attachments via this reply method
-##
This is a response from the Chicago Public Library's Ask a Librarian service. We are contacting you in reply to your E-mail reference question.
This is a response from the Chicago Public Library's Ask a Librarian service. We are contacting you in reply to your E-mail reference question.
Dear John Picone,
We located the following in an October 1, 1899, Telephone
Directory.
**West-934, Cook County Consumptive Hospital, Dunning
**West-934, Cook County Poor House, Dunning
**West-934, Cook County Insane Asylum, Dunning
The asterisk note reads: Private telephone system. When the
private system operator answers, please give the name of the department or of
the person wanted. For an A.D.T. messenger give your order to the operator.
-----------------------
Question History:
Patron: hi! could you please help me find an old phone number, preferably before 1912, for Dunning? I understand the telephone came to chicago in 1877; also, Dunning Asylum officially closed in 1912 (the reopened as Chicago State Hospital, then later the Chicago-Read Mental Health Center). We'd love to know the oldest possible phone number for Dunning's Mental Health facility for a project we're woring on.
thanks a million!
john picone
Librarian 1: Dear John Picone,
We checked the 1912(published in 1911) and the 1905 Chicago Telephone Directory. We found no listing for Dunning Asylum in the alphabetical section nor any listing in the classified section under Hospital/Asylum.
Patron: I'm sorry, I assumed it would come up under some "mental Health" cross reference because the actual name is confusing: the name has always been a colloquial one: it has always been popularly called "Dunning", but the actual name is less clear:
The complex occupied
320 acres of land between Irving Park Road and Montrose Avenue, stretching west
from Naragansett Avenue to Oak Park Avenue.
It was never actually
named Dunning. But the property just south of it was owned by the Dunning
family — so when the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway extended a line
to the area in 1882, the stop was named Dunning Station. And then people
started calling the institution “Dunning.” (In its early years, people
sometimes called it “Jefferson,” since it’s part of Jefferson Township.)
When it opened in
1854, it wasn’t an insane asylum. The Cook County Infirmary was a “poor farm”
and almshouse. County officials opened its doors to people who had fallen on
hard times and found themselves unable to earn a living.
“They didn’t provide
very many services,” says Joseph J. Mehr, a Springfield clinical psychologist
who wrote about Dunning in his 2002 book, “An Illustrated History of Illinois Public Mental Health Services http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-History-Illinois-Services
-1847-2000/dp/1553952154 .”
“What they really
provided were a place to sleep and food,” he says. “And that was pretty much
the extent of it.”
But from the very
beginning, many of the poor people who were sent to live at the almshouse had
mental illnesses. “In some ways, it’s almost similar to what we have today,”
Mehr says, “in that we have a lot of people who are homeless and living on the
streets, and a significant portion of them are people who are mentally ill.
Librarian 1: Dear John Picone,
The caller would have asked for the West exchange. We've attached the following article which should explain it better.
"CHANGE THE NUMBERS." Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1922): 8. Dec 10 1891. ProQuest. Web. 17 Sep. 2015 .
So the county added an
“Insane Department” at the almshouse. And then, in 1870, it built a separate
Cook County Insane Asylum on the grounds.
I think chances are highest it would be listed under "Cook COunty Insane Asylum" after 1870, or The Cook COunty Infirmary" between 1854 and 1870
thanks
john picone
--- Previous transcript history deleted ---
Librarian 1: Dear John Picone,
We located the following in an October 1, 1899, Telephone Directory.
**West-934, Cook County Consumptive Hospital, Dunning
**West-934, Cook County Poor House, Dunning
**West-934, Cook County Insane Asylum, Dunning
The asterisk note reads: Private telephone system. When the private system operator answers, please give the name of the department or of the person wanted. For an A.D.T. messenger give your order to the operator.
Show original message
1. ADT incorporated into Western Union in 1901 and
separated its messenger business
from its main signaling business at that time. In 1909, Western Union and ADT came under the control of American Telephone
& Telegraph Company (AT&T).
The ADT Corporation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_ADT_Corporation
Wikipedia
In 1863, Edward A. Calahan invented
a stock ticker[4][5][6] and formed the Gold and
Stock Telegraph Company in 1867 to exploit the technology. Gold and Stock also
developed a messenger system that sent instructions to and from the stock
exchange floor. Three years later, the president of Gold and Stock Telegraph
Company woke up to a burglar in his home, which inspired him to create a
telegraph-based alert system. This system eventually connected 50 of his
neighbors to a central station where all the alert boxes were monitored.[7] There were many small telegraph delivery companies in the United States in the 19th century. In
1874, 57 district telegraph delivery companies affiliated and became "American
District Telegraph". With the increase in telephone usage in the late 19th
century, ADT's messenger business slowly declined in popularity. ADT tried
branching out and developing their signaling business, while still maintaining
their telegraph business as primary income source. ADT incorporated into Western Union in 1901 and separated its
messenger business from its main signaling business at that time. In 1909,
Western Union and ADT came under the control of American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T).
ADT began to expand into new areas, such as fire alarms and security alarms between 1910 and 1930, but
was kept separate from AT&T's Holmes alarm
business. ADT became apublicly owned company in the
1960s.
Evolution
of Local Telephone Numbers in Chicago
By
William
D. Caughlin
Corporate
Archivist
SBC
Archives and History Center
February
27, 2004
Contrary to popular belief, there were no
central office prefixes in the beginning.
To place a call on June 26, 1878, when the Bell-licensed Chicago
Telephonic Exchange first opened, the subscriber merely told the operator the
name and address of the party desired.
For purposes of identification, the original telephone switchboard at
125 LaSalle St. was known as Central office.
Two other offices soon opened and were called the Halsted Street branch
and the Canal Street branch.
By 1883, these three central offices had grown
to 11, and around that time the Bell System-affiliated Chicago Telephone
Company (formed in 1881) began to refer to most of them by number. Thus, the switchboard at 125 LaSalle St.
became known as the No. 2 office. By
then, too, subscribers were requested to call by number rather than by name.
The initial digit of the phone number generally
indicated the telephone central office; that is, the subscriber who had “3123” as the call number was served
from No. 3 office at Chicago Ave. and Clark St.
The three offices lying just outside the city limits had no numerical
designation and were known as Stock Yards, Oakland and Ravenswood. In 1889, Stock Yards was changed to Yards and
Ravenswood to Lake View. In that same
year, telephone growth brought about the first use of 5-digit numbers, the
Oakland series running from 9800 to 10,999 and the Lake View series from 12,001
to 12,499. This first call number system
was inflexible, however, because it allowed little latitude for growth.
By 1892, on the eve of the opening of
the World’s Columbian Exposition, it became apparent that the city was rapidly
outgrowing the old numbering scheme, and in that year the change to a system of
combined prefix and number was made.
Beginning February 15, a subscriber served from No. 3 office had his/her
number change from “3123” to “North 123.” Below is the entire list of changes.
Old Designation Serving #s Changed to
No. 2 office 1 to 2999 Main 1 to Main 2999
No. 3 3001
to 3999 North 1 to North 999
Nos. 4 & 5 4000 to 5399 Main 4000 to Main 5399
No. 7 7001
to 7999 West 1 to West 999
No. 8 8001
to 8999 South 1 to South 999
No. 9 9001
to 9499 Canal 1 to Canal 499
Yards 9500
to 9799 Yards 500 to Yards 799
Oakland 9800
to 10,999 Oakland 800 to Oakland 999
Lake View 12,001
to 12,499 Lake View 1 to Lake View 499
Telephone numbers, therefore, started using the
central office name as the prefix. This
second system remained in effect for nearly 30 years.
In June 1921, Illinois Bell Telephone Company
(formed in December 1920 from the merger of Chicago Telephone Company and the
Illinois properties of Central Union Telephone Company) adopted the citywide
3-letter 4-number plan, effective with the delivery of the October telephone
directory. At that time, all phone
numbers with less than four digits were changed to add zeros ahead of the
number to make four numerals in all cases (for example, “NORth 0029”). Certain names, such as “Monticello,” were
replaced because their numerical equivalents, in this case “666,” conflicted
with other existing offices, like “Monroe.”
As a result, “Monticello” became “Juniper.” This change was necessary for the launch of
automatic dial service, first introduced in Chicago with the cutover of “CENtral” prefix (in the Franklin
Building at 315 W. Washington St.) on June 9, 1923.
The fourth alteration in Chicago’s calling plan
was the conversion to 2-letters and 5-numbers across the city on September 18,
1948 (for instance, “CEntral 6-1234”). As with the implementation of central office
prefixes in 1892, the change to the 2-letter 5-number plan was necessary to
provide additional telephone numbers required by the enormous demand for phone
service after World War II.
The following is the complete list of Chicago
and Evanston central office names and their corresponding prefixes, adopted in
1948. This system allowed for additional
prefix equivalents without the invention of new exchange names.
Aberdeen............... AB 4
Albany.................. AL 2
Ambassador........... AM 2
Andover................ AN 3
Ardmore................ AR 1
Armitage............... AR 6
Atlantic................. AT 5
Austin................... AU 7
Avenue................. AV 3
Bayport................. BA 1
Belmont................ BE 5
Berkshire............... BE 7
Beverly................. BE 8
Bishop................... BI 7
Bittersweet............ BI 8
Boulevard.............. BO 8
Briargate................ BR 4
Brunswick............. BR 8
Buckingham.......... BU 1
Butterfield............. BU 8
Calumet................. CA 5
Canal..................... CA 6
Capitol.................. CA 7
Cathedral............... CA 8
Cedarcrest............. CE 3
Central.................. CE 6
Chesapeake........... CH 3
Cliffside................ CL 4
Columbus.............. CO 1
Commodore……….CO 4
Cornelia................ CO 7
Crawford............... CR 7
Danube................. DA 6
Davis..................... DA 8
Dearborn............... DE 2
Delaware............... DE 7
Dickens................. DI 2
Diversey................ DI 8
Dorchester............. DO 3
Drexel................... DR 3
Eastgate................. EA 7
Edgewater............. ED 4
Elmdrive............... EL 6
Englewood............ EN 4
Essex..................... ES 5
Estebrook.............. ES 8
Everglade.............. EV 4
Fairfax.................. FA 4
Financial............... FI 6
Fire........................ FI 7
Franklin................. FR 2
Frontier................. FR 6
Graceland.............. GR 2
Greenleaf.............. GR 5
Grovehill............... GR 6
Harrison................ HA 7
Haymarket............. HA 1
Hemlock............... HE 4
Hilltop................... HI 5
Hollycourt............. HO 5
Hudson................. HU 3
Humboldt.............. HU 6
Hyde Park............. HY 3
Independence........ IN 3
Interocean............. IN 8
Irving.................... IR 8
Juniper.................. JU 8
Kedzie................... KE 3
Kenwood............... KE 6
Keystone............... KE 9
Kildare.................. KI 5
Lafayette............... LA 3
Lakeview.............. LA 5
Lawndale.............. LA 1
Lincoln.................. LI 9
Livingston............. LI 8
Longbeach............. LO 1
Mansfield.............. MA 6
Merrimac............... ME 7
Michigan............... MI 2
Midway................. MI 3
Mohawk................ MO 4
Monroe................. MO 6
Mulberry............... MU 5
Museum................ MU 4
National................ NA 2
Nevada.................. NE 8
Newcastle.............. NE 1
Normal.................. NO 7
Oakland................ OA 4
Official................. OF 3
Palisade................. PA 5
Pensacola.............. PE 6
Plaza..................... PL 2
Police.................... PO 5
Portsmouth............ PO 7
Prospect................ PR 6
Pullman................. PU 5
Radcliffe............... RA 3
Randolph............... RA 6
Ravenswood.......... RA 8
Regent................... RE 4
Reliance................ RE 5
Republic................ RE 7
Rockwell............... RO 2
Rodney................. RO 3
Rogers Park........... RO 4
Sacramento............ SA 2
Saginaw................. SA 1
Seeley................... SE 3
Sheldrake.............. SH 3
South Chicago....... SO 8
South Shore........... SO 8
Spaulding.............. SP 2
Spring.................... SP 7
State...................... ST 2
Stewart.................. ST 3
Sunnyside.............. SU 4
Superior................ SU 7
Taylor................... TA 9
Triangle................. TR 4
Tuxedo.................. TU 9
University............. UN 4
Uptown................. UP 8
Van Buren............. VA 6
Victory.................. VI 2
Vincennes............. VI 6
Virginia................. VI 7
Wabash................. WA 2
Wagner.................. WA 4
Walbrook.............. WA 5
Waterfall............... WA 8
Weather................. WE 4
Webster................. WE 9
Wellington............. WE 5
Wentworth............ WE 6
Whitehall............... WH 4
Yards.................... YA 7
The fifth and final telephone number scheme
began with the conversion to All Number Calling (ANC) on September 11,
1960. Despite some early opposition from
individuals and businesses who wanted to retain their beloved exchange
prefixes, this evolutionary process was finally completed in 1977. At that point, the Chicago alphabetical directory
showed all local numbers in the city to be in the now familiar 7-digit format
still in use today (such as, “236-1234”).
For more on the history of the SBC family of companies,
please contact William Caughlin or Amy Filiatreau at:
SBC Archives and History Center
San Antonio, Texas
(210) 524-6192
Dunning
phone number: so the numbers were:
We located the following in an October 1, 1899, Telephone Directory.
**West-934, Cook County Consumptive Hospital, Dunning
**West-934, Cook County Poor House, Dunning
**West-934, Cook County Insane Asylum, Dunning
The asterisk note reads: Private telephone system. When the
private system operator answers, please give the name of the department or of
the person wanted. For an A.D.T. messenger give your order to the operator.
1892 No. 7 7001
to 7999 West 1 to West 999
(so 7934? became
"West 934?))
1899 **West-934,
Cook County Insane Asylum, Dunning
1921-1923 so,
WES-0934 ?
1948 2letter, 5
digit so AV3-0934? 283-0934 312-283-0934?
Area code: in 1947, area code was 312 (second fastest rotary
dial least clicks after nyc 212)
Chicago State Hospital (Dunning), Formerly located at 6500 W
Irving Park Road (Now the Dunning Shopping Center).
Changed to
Chicago state hosp 1912
Read… bldgs.
Closed 1970
6506 W. Belmont Avenue in Dunning. Frank's Pizzeria still has its vintage signage.
AV3-2564. (AV stood for AVondale)
LOCATION
Frank's Pizzeria6506 W Belmont Ave
Chicago IL, 60634(773) 283-2564
Left: Before we were armed with a list of the two letter codes, telling us
what they meant, we were left to make a guess based on the location. This was
also before we knew that the format was changed from 3L-4D to 2L-5D in 1948.
The first number in the five number version, taking the five in “CA 5-6969″ for
example, refers to the third letter in the word (Calumet), in this case ‘L’. As
stated earlier, these are not always based on proximity to what the name
refers. We thought “AV 3″ meant Avondale, considering the sign is in Portage
Park. It actually means Avenue, which makes little geographic sense, not
considering the fact that “o” in Avondale would not have been a three
Changed to reed
Disclaimer: I am fully
aware of just how Zimsky this is: writing down all these sources and
inspirations and references for… well, for posterity. I know nobody is probably
going to read this, and even less people will care: Well Theyah!