#faust 1960

[sacredwhores]

Gustaf Gründgens & Peter Gorski - Faust (1960)

[weirdlookindog]

Katarsis (1963) - Italian poster

AKA Challenge the Devil

[brandybradyrandyandyndy]

Inch resting....

[kryptonbabe]

Best of Blue Ribbon Digest 36, 1983

Some Kryptonites not on the handbook:

Platinum Kryptonite ➝‬ Gives Kryptonian super-powers to humans permanently (Batman Secret Files #1, 2018)

Black Kryptonite ➝‬ Strange and unpredictable effects on Kryptonians (Smallville series, S4E1 Crusade, 2004)

Pink Kryptonite ➝‬ Sexual / gender bender (Supergirl Vol. 4 #79, 2003)

Purple Kryptonite ➝‬ Began as a coloring error / Hypnotic effect, it can control the minds of anyone that is near it (Adventure Comics #171, 1951)

Kryptonite-X (Kryptisium) ➝‬ Not lethal, it restored Superman's powers, but caused him to absorb solar energy too rapidly making he lose control of his powers (The Adventures of Superman #511, 1994)

Slow Kryptonite ➝‬ It affects humans the same way Green Kryptonite affects Kryptonians (Batman Secret Files #1, 2018)

Magno-Kryptonite ➝‬ Tracks objects from Krypton including Kryptonite (Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #92, 1966)

Anti-Kryptonite / Fool's Kryptonite ➝‬ Pre-crisis: Looks like Green Kryptonite, but It's harmful to humans and is harmless to Kryptonians / In Post-crisis: it is the power source for one version of Ultraman, Superman's evil counterpart from an antimatter universe (Action Comics #252, 1959)

X-Kryptonite ➝‬ Granted Streaky the Supercat his superpowers (Action Comics #261, 1960)

Red-Green Kryptonite ➝‬ A synthetic Kryptonite created by Brainiac to mutate Superman, it made him grow a third eye on the back of his head (Action Comics #275, 1961)

Krypton Steel ➝‬ A harmless form of Kryptonite that only Superman could break (Super Friends, S3E30 Rest in Peace, 1978)

Opal Kryptonite ➝‬ Synthesized on Earth 2 this variant can apparently drive Kryptonians temporarily insane (Earth 2 #0, 2012)

Krimson Kryptonite ➝‬ Artificial construct of Mr. Mxyzptlk that eliminated Superman's powers temporarily (Superman Vol. 2 #49, 1990)

Orange Kryptonite ➝‬ Provides super-abilities to any animal that comes into contact with it for one day (Krypto the Superdog #4, 2007)

Periwinkle Kryptonite ➝‬ It turns the victim's skin and clothing periwinkle and causes them to completely lose their inhibitions (Superman Family Adventures #9, 2013)

Amber Kryptonite ➝‬ It removes Superman's powers and grant them to someone else (Dark Nights: Death Metal The Multiverse Who Laughs #1, 2021)

Synthetic Kryptonite ➝ Various effects / In Superman III (1980)‬  it caused Superman's morality to change turning him into an evil and destructive being (Multiple origins)

Bizarro Kryptonites:

Bizarro White Kryptonite ➝‬ It heals Bizarro, curing his instability (Superboy, S2E7 The Battle With Bizarro, 1989)

Bizarro Red Kryptonite ➝‬ Affects humans the same way Red Kryptonite affects Kryptonians (Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #80, 1964)

False Kryptonites:

Yellow Kryptonite ➝‬ Began as a hoax by Lex Luthor / Unknown effects (Action Comics #277, 1961)

Silver Kryptonite ➝‬ Began as a hoax by Jimmy Olsen / It causes hallucinations on Kryptonians and possess mystical properties (Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #70 1963)

Kryptonite Plus / Ultra-Kryptonite ➝‬ fake Kryptonite planted by aliens on the moon (Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #126, 1970)

Fake Kryptonite ➝‬ Superboy's friends are selling these crystals labeled as "fake Kryptonite" to raise money for charity (Superboy, S2E17 Brimstone, 1990)

Purple Spotted Kryptonite ➝‬ Exclusive to the Krypto the Superdog cartoon, it made Krypto chase his own tail (Krypto the Superdog, S1E34 Streaky's Supercat Tale, 2005)

Blood Kryptonite ➝‬ Fake Kryptonite magically manipulated by Felix Faust to drain energy from people (52 #13, 2006)

[megaclubdiolis]

Akira Kurosawa Adaptations: Western Literature Classics

白痴 (1951) // ИДИОТ [F. M. Dostoyevsky] 生きる (1952) // Faust [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe] 蜘蛛巣城 (1957) // Macbeth [William Shakespeare] 悪い奴ほどよく眠る (1960) // Hamlet [William Shakespeare] 乱 (1985) // King Lear [William Shakespeare]

[abaddonhotelguest]

THE COMPLETE TIMELINE OF HELL HOUSE LLC. (SO FAR)

Many, many, many days of effort into figuring this all out, and now its here! I did this for fun, but figured it might be something others are interested in for either fanfiction purposes or just to get the full story in order! Giving a fair warning that while I did rewatch and take notes on each individual movie and take a few days to get everything figured out, there could be some small mistakes, so I apologize in advance!!

Most dates were given for big events, but other things mentioned briefly I had to put in the relative spot, with some rough estimation. With large chunks of time, I wrote what happened throughout it in order to make it easier!

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE HELL HOUSE LLC FRANCHISE!

BETWEEN 1960 AND 1965  (exact dates unknown)

Andrew Tully, a deeply religious man, is living in Arkansas with his family. His young daughter Annabelle dies and Tully begins to wish for a way to bring her back. He leaves Arkansas to avoid a warrant for his arrest, leaving his remaining family behind. 

BETWEEN 1965 AND 1980 (exact dates unknown)

Tully moves to Clarksburg, West Virginia and meets two men, Thomas Rollins and Freddy Perkins, at a booth they run at the local fair. After joining Down-A-Clown, the three become fast friends and they create a cult whose goal is to go to the other side and come back/ enter the lake of fire. 

BETWEEN 1980 AND EARLY 1989 (exact dates unknown)

Tully, Freddy, and Thomas leave Clarksburg, West Virginia and move to Abaddon, Rockland County, New York. They build the hotel and hire locals, like Patrick Carmichael, to work there, recruiting people for their cult. The portal to hell, or Lake of Fire, is in the basement. 

JUNE 18, 1989

Patrick drives his sister Margaret to the city to drop her off for rehearsals for the play Faust. A drunk driver hits them and Margaret is pronounced dead upon arrival. Patrick survives but loses the ability to use his left arm, and he falls into a deep depression.

SEPTEMBER 4, 1989

Patrick is holding items from the Abaddon Hotel in his house, including the music sheet to Cold the Nightfall and the items from Down-A-Clown. He has Margaret’s bloody clothing and the featureless mask she had for her play on his dresser, and asks Catherine “what if someone told you they could bring her back?”  

BETWEEN SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER 9, 1989 (exact dates unknown)

Guests from the Abaddon Hotel begin to disappear. Tully is questioned numerous times in regards to the disappearance of an 11 year old girl and her mother. Tully provides records stating they checked out, but his business does not recover from the rumors of foul play. He sends a note home to his employees demanding they all show up despite the hotel being closed.

OCTOBER 10, 1989

Tully and the employees of Abaddon Hotel commit suicide in the hotel. Tilly hangs himself in the dining room. Patrick Carmichael is arrested for fighting and brought to jail, missing the mass suicide, which he refers to as ‘crossing over.’ He provides a flipped confession where he states Tully kept photos and videos of what went on in the hotel, and that he kept them in the fridge. When he returns home, he has full use of his arm again. Eleanor and Catherine Carmichael are killed in their beds, and Patrick and Arthur Carmichael go missing. Patrick wears Tully’s clown suit and goes down to the basement of the Abaddon Hotel. 

DECEMBER 25, 1997

Mallet family home video reveals Jackson Mallet playing Cold the Nightfall. He tells his mother “The hotel opens in 2009. Tell everyone.” A deeper, demonic voice is heard in the background saying ‘The Abaddon Hotel.’

SEPTEMBER 28, 2003

The fair in Abaddon, Rockland County happens despite the disappearance of three girls in the last year. Multiple disappearances and injuries from something that came out of the corn field. Margot Bently is almost lured from the fairgrounds by Tully’s clown. 

2002 (exact date unknown)

Hell House LLC is founded by Alex Taylor, Andrew Macnamara, and Sara Havel. Paul O’Keefe and Tony Prescott are hired. 

2008 (exact date unknown)

Russell Wynn, billionaire by 25, is involved in a car crash. He is legally dead for two minutes and then brought back. According to those close to him, Russell was changed by this experience. 

BETWEEN MARCH 1 AND APRIL 2, 2009 (exact date not known)

Alex Taylor and Tully get into contact and Tully convinces Alex to invest in something. The investment, done with the company's money and not his own, goes bad, and he loses everything. 

BETWEEN APRIL 4 - 18, 2009

Tully ignores Alex’s phone calls for two weeks.

APRIL 18, 2009

Alex Taylor visits the Abaddon Hotel and has an angry conversation with Tully, revealing what he did. Tully convinces Alex to hold this year's haunted house in the Abaddon Hotel so he can avoid telling the group about the investment with the promise of going back to the city next year.

BETWEEN APRIL 19 AND AUGUST 22, 2009 (exact date not known)

Alex tells Mac what happened and swears him to secrecy before the group arrives at the diner where he tells them they won’t be hosting Hell House in the city this year. As they leave, Russell Wynn is seen in a booth near them. 

AUGUST 23, 2009 TO OCTOBER 7, 2009

The Hell House group goes through Abaddon for the first time and a week later begin sleeping there. Hell House LLC sets up in the Abaddon Hotel and experience hauntings. Paul is taken and comes back ‘possessed’ after one night. Everyone but Alex experiences a haunting though his notebook reveals his declining mental health due to being in the hotel.

OCTOBER 8, 2009

Opening night of Hell House. 15 people die, numerous injured. 7 bodies never recovered, including some of the Hell House crew. Town officials and police say it was a ‘technical malfunction.’ Alex, Tony, and Paul’s bodies were the only ones found out of the crew. 

OCTOBER 16, 2009

Joey Shefler hangs himself after refusing to talk to police about October 8th. 

BETWEEN NOVEMBER 2009 - DECEMBER 2010 (exact date unknown)

Martin Cliver, a journalist, breaks into the Abaddon Hotel and takes photos and posts them on the internet. Photos of dried blood pools and bloody hand prints throughout the house, including basement steps, prove that it was not a gas leak like the town had been saying. 

2014 (exact date unknown)

Jessica Fox, Molly Reynolds, and David Morris are the people behind THE INSIDE, a blog dedicated to uncovering corruption. In 2014, Jessica breaks a story about kick-backs and pay-to-play deals in the New York State assembly, resulting in many senators going to prison. 

BETWEEN SEPTEMBER - NOVEMBER 2014 (exact date unknown)

Sara Havel, previously missing, reaches out to Diane Graves for an interview. Diane is the director and producer of the documentary ‘Inside Hell House,’ in which she is currently filming. Sara produces the tapes they filmed at the Abaddon, and after answering some questions, tells Diane to meet her at her room, 2C, and convinces her to go to the Abaddon. Diane and her cameraman Jonathan Miller go missing. Mitchell Cavanaugh goes through the Hell House footage and discovers what really happened. 

OCTOBER 6, 2015 

Mitchell releases Hell House LLC to the world. 

BETWEEN OCTOBER 7, 2015 AND OCTOBER 7, 2017 (exact dates unknown)

A teenage boy named Cameron livestreams himself breaking into the Abaddon on Facebook. He sees the legs of a figure (presumably Tully) on the steps. He says “Sorry, I’ll go now,” and then proceeds to livestream until his phone dies, never moving from that position. Police go to find him and find no trace, including his phone. 

MAY 7, 2015

A teenage boy records himself entering the Abaddon Hotel. He captures the voice of Sara Havel.

AUGUST 5, 2016

Jackson Mallet goes missing after breaking into the abandoned Abaddon Hotel. 

SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

A couple, Nate and Adam, pick up a hitch-hiker and bring her to the Abaddon Hotel. They follow her inside and she attacks them in the basement, revealing a demonic face. The girl is believed to be 18-year-old Savannah Collins whose body was never recovered after she was rumored to have hitch-hiked to the opening night of Hell House. 

OCTOBER 8, 2016

Jackson’s mother receives a text from Jacksons phone reading “Come to the Abaddon Hotel. They’re all in the dining room. They have no eyes,” The last sentence is repeated numerous times. Following the text is a video of Jackson Mallet's apparent last moments. He is running through the Abaddon Hotel asking for help as the demon cult members are seen around. He says “They’re all still here. They want me to go with them. They’re all in hell. They’re all with him.” Tully is sending these.

OCTOBER 22, 2016

Jackson Mallet’s mother receives an email of a video. The video is of 2C in the Abaddon Hotel. The room is empty and in the background you can hear muffled screams, presumably Jackson, as well as Cold The Nightfall on piano.

BETWEEN OCTOBER 1-5, 2017

Morning Mysteries, led by Suzy McCombs, is filming a part of the documentary they are making after 8 years. They capture a demon cult member on the balcony. 

OCTOBER 6, 2017

Morning Mysteries interviews Mitchell Cavanaugh, Arnold Tassleman, and Brock Davis and they discuss Hell House. Arnold Tassleman is currently in a legal battle with Mitchell due to his belief Mitchell has caused damage to the town of Abaddon. At the end of the segment, Jessica calls and tells them she has physical proof of Tully’s involvement with the missing guests, Hell House, and the town's involvement. As she hangs up, she says “Mitchell, if you want to know what happened to Diane, come find me.” As the interview ends, an assistant to Morning Mysteries tells Suzy that Arnold Tassleman never actually showed up due to a car accident. 

OCTOBER 7, 2017

Mitchell and THE INSIDE meet and discuss how to get into the Abaddon Hotel, then record at Mitchell’s apartment. Jessica reveals her ‘physical proof’ is a police transcript she was sent in the mail anonymously. It holds Patrick Carmichaels flipped confession, revealing tapes and evidence in the fridge. The group goes to the bar after. Russell Wynn enters the bar as they leave.

OCTOBER 8 - 11, 2017

Mitchell, Jessica, Molly, David, Brock Davies, and his cameraman Malcolm arrive at the Abaddon Hotel. In the basement fridge, they find tapes related to the hotel (‘The Abaddon Hotel: From Construction to Completion,’ ‘Unaired Commercial’) as well as blueprints to the hotel and other tapes. One of said tapes is the meeting between Alex and Tully in April. Tully reveals he has been sending videos (the ones featured in HH2,) to ‘a poor stranger,’ that being Russel Wynn. All 6 remain missing.

OCTOBER 12, 2017

Jessica Fox is found walking down the side of the road in confusion with injuries. Once in the police station, it's revealed she is dead and being used by Tully as a means to lure people to the hotel like Sara Havel. 

BETWEEN 2017 AND 2018 (exact date unknown)

Billy Braddock posts on Facebook about going to the Abaddon Hotel to burn it down and is never heard from again.

BETWEEN AUGUST 1 TO SEPTEMBER 13, 2018 (exact date unknown)

Russel Wynn buys the Abaddon Hotel and saves it from being torn down. He moves his New York City based live-theater trope ‘Insomnia’ to the hotel to perform a version of Faust. Vanessa Shepard, the new host of Morning Mysteries, is invited and given full access to the set of Insomnia for behind the scenes filming and interviews with the cast and crew. Russell wants her to record the process up to opening night. 

SEPTEMBER 13 TO OCTOBER 2, 2018 

Insomnia prepares for opening night October 1st. After a confrontation with Father Paulis, Vanessa learns that at midnight Russell Wynn will be liquidating his assets and having him disperse it into various charities. The gateway is opened and then destroyed by Russell and the Abaddon Hotel burns to the ground, leaving a few smoldering remains. Russell was able to close the portal due to his brief death in 2008. All tour goers and members of Insomnia were found in the corn field behind the hotel safe and confused. Those who died in the hotel before that night are stuck there but in purgatory. Russel’s hotel room is revealed to have dozens of hours of footage regarding the hotel, including what happened to the previous Morning Mysteries group. 

BETWEEN OCTOBER 3, 2018 TO NOVEMBER 2021 (exact dates unknown)

A local antique shop takes in some items that survived the fire (including the grandfather clock) and puts them up for sale. The Documentary of HH2 is released. Margot Bentley and Bradley Moynahan create the website NetSleuths.com, a place for amateur detectives to work and solve cases with a focus on unsolved/cold cases. Margot and her girlfriend Rebecca often go and stay at the places she is investigating, and she records everything. She gets into contact with Donald and secures 5 nights at the Carmichael Manor. Margot’s mother calls her and tells her that her brother, Chase, has been missing for two days. Despite taking his medication, Chase see’s a disappearing and reappearing 11-year-old girl asking him to help her find her mom and that they’re staying at a hotel. The girl tells Chase to ‘Go with Margot.’ The next day, Margot invites Chase to Carmichael Manor. 

NOVEMBER 6 - 11, 2021

Margot, Rebecca, and Chase stay at the Carmichael Manor. They find a connection between the house and the Abaddon Hotel via the antique shop. Chase goes missing, and on November 11, 2021 at 2 am, Rebecca and Margot are killed in the manor. 

BETWEEN DECEMBER 2021 TO MARCH 2022 (exact date unknown)

The Rockland County officials reveal they are planning on reopening the fair now that the Abaddon Hotel is destroyed.

[haveyouseenthishorrormovie]

Stats from Movies 401-500

Top 10 Movies - Highest Number of Votes

The Platform (2019) had the most votes with 1,912 votes. Sauna (2008) had the least votes with 546 votes.

The 10 Most Watched Films by Percentage

Zombieland (2009) was the most watched film with 69.3% of voters out of 858 saying they had seen it.

The 10 Least Watched Films by Percentage

Slender Man (2018) was the least watched film with 71.9% of voters out of 1,354 saying they hadn’t seen it.

The 10 Most Known Films by Percentage

American Psycho (2000) was the best known film, only 1% of voters out of 1,171 saying they’d never heard of it.

The 10 Least Known Films by Percentage

Beaten to Death (2022) was the least known film, 92,86% of voters out of 658 saying they’d never heard of it.

The movies part of the statistic count and their polls below the cut.

Prey (2022) M3GAN (2022) Caveat (2020) Patchwork (2015) All Cheerleaders Die (2013) The Final (2010) Disturbing Behavior (1998) The Gate (1987) Sssssss (1973) Xtro (1982)

Body Melt (1993) Mr. Sardonicus (1961) The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) Eating Raoul (1982) Peeping Tom (1960) Night of the Scarecrow (1995) Bad Milo! (2013) Patrick (1978) Beaten to Death (2022) Lovely Molly (2011)

The Passenger (2023) Rent-A-Pal (2020) The Cell (2000) Faust: Love of the Damned (2000) The Children (2008) Prince of Darkness (1987) Escape Room (2019) Eraserhead (1977) Incubus (1966) Blacula (1972)

I Drink Your Blood (1971) Dementia (1955) Hollow Man (2000) Thir13en Ghosts (2001) The Endless (2017) Bite (2015) Idle Hands (1999) Undead (2003) At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (1964) Daddy's Girl (2018)

Bad Boy Bubby (1993) Warm Bodies (2013) Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021) The Haunting in Connecticut (2009) The Stepford Wives (2004) Fright Night (2011) The Witches (1990) The Hills Have Eyes (2006) Cat People (1942) AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004)

King Kong (1933) The Happening (2008) Blade (1998) Blade II (2002) Blade: Trinity (2004) Bone Tomahawk (2015) Resident Evil (2002) Don't Look Now (1973) I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) What Lies Beneath (2000)

Sauna (2008) The Orphanage (2007) Eight Legged Freaks (2002) The Windmill Massacre (2016) Antlers (2021) Slaughterhouse Rulez (2018) Dark Signal (2016) When Evil Lurks (2023) Huesera: The Bone Woman (2022) Halloween (2018)

Halloween Kills (2021) Halloween Ends (2022) Smile (2022) Orphan (2009) Orphan: First Kill (2022) Fresh (2022) Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) White Noise (2005) The Platform (2019) In the Tall Grass (2019)

Slender Man (2018) It Chapter Two (2019) Annabelle (2014) The Conjuring (2013) The Nun (2018) Urban Legend (1998) Bones and All (2022) Deep Rising (1998) Black Friday (2021) Werewolf By Night (2022)

Deathgasm (2015) Slither (2006) American Psycho (2000) Friday the 13th (2009) Revenge (2017) Host (2020) A Bay of Blood (1971) Black Christmas (2019) Zombieland (2009) Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)

[legend-collection]

Robert Johnson

According to legend, as a young man living on a plantation in rural Mississippi, Johnson had a tremendous desire to become a great blues musician. One of the legends often told says that Johnson was instructed to take his guitar to a crossroad near Dockery Plantation at midnight. (There are claims for other sites as the location of the crossroads.) There he was met by a large black man (the Devil) who took the guitar and tuned it. The Devil played a few songs and then returned the guitar to Johnson, giving him mastery of the instrument. This story of a deal with the Devil at the crossroads mirrors the legend of Faust. In exchange for his soul, Johnson was able to create the blues for which he became famous.

This legend was developed over time and has been chronicled by Gayle Dean Wardlow, Edward Komara and Elijah Wald, who sees the legend as largely dating from Johnson's rediscovery by white fans more than two decades after his death. Son House once told the story to Pete Welding as an explanation of Johnson's astonishingly rapid mastery of the guitar. Other interviewers failed to elicit any confirmation from House and there were fully two years between House's observation of Johnson as first a novice and then a master.

Further details were absorbed from the imaginative retellings by Greil Marcus and Robert Palmer. Most significantly, the detail was added that Johnson received his gift from a large black man at a crossroads. There is dispute as to how and when the crossroads detail was attached to the Robert Johnson story. All the published evidence, including a full chapter on the subject in the biography Crossroads, by Tom Graves, suggests an origin in the story of the blues musician Tommy Johnson. This story was collected from his musical associate Ishman Bracey and his elder brother Ledell in the 1960s. One version of Ledell Johnson's account was published in David Evans's 1971 biography of Tommy Johnson, and was repeated in print in 1982 alongside House's story in the widely read Searching for Robert Johnson, by Peter Guralnick.

In another version, Ledell placed the meeting not at a crossroads but in a graveyard. This resembles the story told to Steve LaVere that Ike Zimmerman of Hazlehurst, Mississippi, learned to play the guitar at midnight while sitting on tombstones. Zimmerman is believed to have influenced the playing of the young Johnson.

Recent research by the blues scholar Bruce Conforth, in Living Blues magazine, makes the story clearer. Johnson and Ike Zimmerman did practice in a graveyard at night, because it was quiet and no one would disturb them, but it was not the Hazlehurst cemetery as had been believed: Zimmerman was not from Hazlehurst but nearby Beauregard, and he did not practice in one graveyard, but in several in the area. Johnson spent about a year living with and learning from Zimmerman, who ultimately accompanied Johnson back to the Delta to look after him.

While Dockery, Hazlehurst and Beauregard have each been claimed as the locations of the mythical crossroads, there are also tourist attractions claiming to be "The Crossroads" in both Clarksdale and Memphis. Residents of Rosedale, Mississippi, claim Johnson sold his soul to the devil at the intersection of Highways 1 and 8 in their town, while the 1986 movie Crossroads was filmed in Beulah, Mississippi. The blues historian Steve Cheseborough wrote that it may be impossible to discover the exact location of the mythical crossroads, because "Robert Johnson was a rambling guy".

Some scholars have argued that the devil in these songs may refer not only to the Christian figure of Satan but also to the trickster god of African origin, Legba, himself associated with crossroads. Folklorist Harry M. Hyatt wrote that, during his research in the South from 1935 to 1939, when African-Americans born in the 19th or early 20th century said they or anyone else had "sold their soul to the devil at the crossroads", they had a different meaning in mind. Hyatt claimed there was evidence indicating African religious retentions surrounding Legba and the making of a "deal" (not selling the soul in the same sense as in the Faustian tradition cited by Graves) with the so-called devil at the crossroads.

The Blues and the Blues singer has really special powers over women, especially. It is said that the Blues singer could possess women and have any woman they wanted. And so when Robert Johnson came back, having left his community as an apparently mediocre musician, with a clear genius in his guitar style and lyrics, people said he must have sold his soul to the devil. And that fits in with this old African association with the crossroads where you find wisdom: you go down to the crossroads to learn, and in his case to learn in a Faustian pact, with the devil. You sell your soul to become the greatest musician in history.

This view that the devil in Johnson's songs is derived from an African deity was disputed by the blues scholar David Evans in an essay published in 1999, "Demythologizing the Blues":

There are ... several serious problems with this crossroads myth. The devil imagery found in the blues is thoroughly familiar from western folklore, and nowhere do blues singers ever mention Legba or any other African deity in their songs or other lore. The actual African music connected with cults of Legba and similar trickster deities sounds nothing like the blues, but rather features polyrhythmic percussion and choral call-and-response singing.

The musicologist Alan Lomax dismissed the myth, stating, "In fact, every blues fiddler, banjo picker, harp blower, piano strummer and guitar framer was, in the opinion of both himself and his peers, a child of the Devil, a consequence of the black view of the European dance embrace as sinful in the extreme".

Both Lomax's and Evans's accounts themselves have been disputed and dismissed by Black scholars and authors including Amiri Baraka and Cornel West. West defines Blues as a creation of a people "who are willing to look unflinchingly at catastrophic conditions", as children of God responding to those conditions. Baraka's words are more directly critical of white writers who study African-American Blues artform and culture from a Western viewpoint, stating that they "They have to do that to make themselves superior in some kind of way: that everything has come from Europe, which is not true". Baraka cites that rather than being formed out of any Western context, Blues derives from an African context of its own. The call-and-response singing Lomax argues is different from Blues has been widely cited as being a central aspect of Blues music.

[volleypearlfan]

Boys Like Girl Leads Too

Recently, an animated adaptation of the comic strip Phoebe and Her Unicorn was cancelled by Nickelodeon, who claimed that boys won't watch cartoons with female protagonists. This incident shows how out of touch TV executives are with the audiences of their shows.

Contrary to popular belief, gender doesn't matter. A good show is a good show, and if it's good, then anyone, including boys, can watch it, and history has proven that time and time again. Here are just a few examples:

Winsome Witch is a series of Hanna-Barbera shorts that aired during The Secret Squirrel Show. Even in the 1960s, Hanna-Barbera knew that boys can watch shows with female leads. Winsome Witch is about a witch named Winnie, and the magical mishaps she gets into. She's just as clumsy and hilarious as any other male H-B character, and she doesn't have a sidekick. While she is obscure nowadays, that's just because the various backup segments in Hanna-Barbera shows aren't very well-known in general.

Also from Hanna-Barbera is The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, a spinoff of Wacky Races, featuring one of the most popular characters, Penelope Pitstop. She dresses in pink and is often a damsel in distress, but she's still able to save herself, and sometimes even saves the all-male Ant Hill Mob. If there's one thing H-B was good at, it was keeping in touch with their audience. If you look at the Amazon reviews for the complete series DVD, you'll find a lot of male reviewers praising the show, if only because they found Penelope to be hot. Guys WILL watch your cartoon if it has an attractive female character.

Speaking of which, there are a whole bunch of anime starring cute girls (known as 'moe' or 'bishoujo') and guess what? They're targeted at male demographics (such as shonen, young boys, or seinen, adult men). Shows such as Azumanga Daioh, Lucky Star, and K-On! are popular with boys and men not just because of their cute girl characters, but because they're funny and relatable. In particular, Konata Izumi from Lucky Star behaves a lot like the average otaku.

Going back to Nickelodeon, they don't have very many Nicktoons with female leads. Just one of them is The Mighty B! It's a show about a young girl, Bessie, and is just as absurd and slapstick-filled as SpongeBob. Though short lived, it was a big hit for the network, getting 1.92 million viewers in the 2–11 demographic AND beating out Bakugan, a male-oriented anime, in the ratings.

Another short-lived 2000s female-led cartoon is Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi. At the time it premiered, it was the Cartoon Network's top-rated hit for kids 6–11. It has a cult following today, a good chunk of which are guys who think the characters are cute. Again, guys WILL watch your cartoon if the girls are cute.

A much more notable Cartoon Network show is The Powerpuff Girls. Admittedly, the pilot didn't do well with a test group of 11 year old boys, but the actual show became a huge hit with everyone including boys. Everyone can enjoy watching little girls beat up bad guys.

Lauren Faust, who worked on PPG, would go on to create My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. And we all know how the story goes: it was bashed for being "the end of creator driven animation" and "smarts-shaming" by people who hadn't even watched the show. A certain image board watched the show to see what all the fuss was about, and thus, Bronies were born. It's important to note that Faust deliberately made the show in such a way that everyone, from boys to adults, can enjoy it. And did she succeed. Once again, guys like to watch cute girls kick ass.

Exactly ten years ago, a spinoff of Avatar: the Last Airbender premiered: The Legend of Korra. Nickelodeon was hesitant with the show at first. They thought that boys wouldn't like the show because Korra is a girl. They were dead wrong - the boys in the test audience didn't care that she was a girl -- they thought she was awesome.

Despite all of these girl-led cartoons being popular with guys, TV executives still seem to believe that boys don't want to watch cartoons about girls. In a Discord server I'm in, someone noted that The Casagrandes was forced to shift its' focus from Ronnie Anne to her cousin, Carl, so that boys would watch the show (I don't watch the show, so I wouldn't know). Compare that with its' parent series, The Loud House. We have one boy and ten girls, but boys still like it, even after the sisters got just as much, if not more, focus than Lincoln. Despite all of that, Lincoln still gets over-promoted and put in the title cards, even if he doesn't appear in the episode. Nickelodeon is so out of touch, it's not even funny.

Cartoons transcend gender. Whether its' cute girls doing cute things or girls in action, a good show is a good show.

[high-school-lit-tournament]

High School Lit Tournament Side C

The Master and Margarita: An audacious revision of the stories of Faust and Pontius Pilate, The Master and Margarita is recognized as one of the essential classics of modern Russian literature. The novel's vision of Soviet life in the 1930s is so ferociously accurate that it could not be published during its author's lifetime and appeared only in a censored edition in the 1960s. Its truths are so enduring that its language has become part of the common Russian speech. One hot spring, the devil arrives in Moscow, accompanied by a retinue that includes a beautiful naked witch and an immense talking black cat with a fondness for chess and vodka. The visitors quickly wreak havoc in a city that refuses to believe in either God or Satan. But they also bring peace to two unhappy Muscovites: one is the Master, a writer pilloried for daring to write a novel about Christ and Pontius Pilate; the other is Margarita, who loves the Master so deeply that she is willing literally to go to hell for him. 

We: Yevgeny Zamyatin's We is a powerfully inventive vision that has influenced writers from George Orwell to Ayn Rand. In a glass-enclosed city of absolute straight lines, ruled over by the all-powerful 'Benefactor', the citizens of the totalitarian society of OneState live out lives devoid of passion and creativity - until D-503, a mathematician who dreams in numbers, makes a discovery: he has an individual soul. Set in the twenty-sixth century AD, We is the classic dystopian novel and was the forerunner of works such as George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. It was suppressed for many years in Russia and remains a resounding cry for individual freedom, yet is also a powerful, exciting and vivid work of science fiction. Clarence Brown's brilliant translation is based on the corrected text of the novel, first published in Russia in 1988 after more than sixty years' suppression.

[aboutzatanna]

Interesting tidbit that has been quietly retconned over the years; Zatanna's dad was originally missing for ~20 years~.

Source: Justice League of America Vol 1 (1960) #51

This even made it one of her and father's earliest Whos Who page:

Both of these are from the mid-late 80's.

And a slightly more 'recent' one from the 90's:

However in DC's 'Blue Ribbon' #5 (1980) by Gerry Conway and Romeo Tanghal she was shown as much older when she first learned that her father went missing:

Later DC's Secret Origins #27 (1988) and her new Whos Who established that she was 18 when her father disappeared:

And that has been the case ever since.

So if initially, Zatara was missing for 21 years, who raised Zatanna? That has never been specified. Aging her up to 18 when her father disappeared was a more sensible explanation as it explains why Zatanna takes after her father so much. Her 2010 ongoing by Dini further emphasized how influential and present Zatara was in Zatanna's life.

Secret Origins #27 also suggested that Dr Mist has been secretly orchestrating the lives of many characters including Zatara and Zatanna (hence the 'despite your gender I decided to raise you' line in the cropped scan above) but that's been ignored ever since and rightfully so I would say.

Only time the 20 years thing was mentioned was in James Robinson's Starman ongoing when the titular Starman, Jack Knight, met with the ghosts of various Golden Age heroes and he uses that fact to great dramatic effect to compare and contrast the relationship between Jack and his superhero father and Zatara's relationship with his daughter:

Source: Starman #37

(See more about Zatara's origins here)

As great as these two pages are, Zatara being missing for 21 years would never be brought up again. Zatara disappearing when Zatanna was 18 and only being gone for a few years instead of two whole decades is the current predominant canon.

Still, for an Elseworlds, it might be fun to consider what would have happened if Zatara did disappear when Zatanna was a child and how Zatanna might have turned out if she was raised by someone else for most of her life and how that might have affected her relationship with her Dad. What if she was raised by Madame Xanadu? Or Jason Blood? Or let's make it really bad and it was a villain like the Wizard or Felix Faust? How would her powers, costume and outlook on life be like?

[weirdlookindog]

Katarsis (1963)

[vintage-ukraine]

Ukrainian actors Bohdan Stupka and Vyachelsav Sumsky in the play “Faust and Death” in Lviv, 1960

[mifunebooty]

Favorite first time watches of May 2024

1. Tommy 1975

2. The Phantom Carriage 1921

3. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

4. Faust 1926

5. Cape Fear 1962 (I'll count it as first time simply because I forgot the entire original when I watched in 2018)

6. The Holdovers 2023

7. Sunrise: a song of two humans 1927

8. Priscilla 2023

9. How the west was won 1962

10. Black Sunday 1960

11. 2 fast 2 furious

12. The duff 2015

13. The black phone 2021

[solradguy]

RE: @publicbath-ao3

Sorry for not replying right away, I wanted to wait until my brain switched to Jack-O' mode so you could get pure concentrated tumblr user solradguy thoughts on this.

My biggest hot take uhhh actually I thought on this for a while and I can't really think of any "hot" takes, just takes people seem to generally agree with, like how some parts of her story are written poorly and don't give her enough time to shine as her own independent character.

But I can talk about nice Jack-O' takes :^)

I like that she's a bit like Faust where she has really silly/comedic relief moments but her lore and her character are still taken seriously. She's not there JUST to be goofy and even though her lore isn't always written the best, it still does enough to make her interesting as a character, imo, with scenes showing figuring out who she is and the scenes with Raven in Xrd.

Her animations are great too I love them so much. You can really tell ArcSys had fun working on them with how creative some of them are. The way they animated her hair is cool too. It's definitely a 3D model but they made it so fluid. Sol, Testament, and Zato have good hair animations too but this post isn't about them haha

Jack-O's crouch isn't her best pose, it just took off because it's exploitable.

So the 1990s had a bit of a 1960s aesthetic throw back thing with tiedye, bead curtains, flared jeans, and long hair on men coming back into style and Jack-O' has some pretty direct 1960s-70s influences in her design and it's really easy to imagine her as an early '90s kid that never quite got over the '60s throwback stuff. Like it's really easy to imagine her getting excited about stuff like tiedye kits or rainbow flower appliques lol Actually wait they made a mug for one of the popup events that had a date on it that could be maybe Aria's or something

ArcSys was founded in 1988 and Daisuke is definitely older than 1991 so idk what else this year could mean!!

Anyway I just think Jack-O' is neat. I would still love her even if she was a worm

[redheadgleek]

Books read July-September

July The Grace of Wild Things by Heather Fawcett. A completely enchanting Anne of Green Gables retelling. Utterly delightful and unique. Book Lovers by Emily Henry. My first book that I’ve read of hers and it set high standards for the rest of them. I loved the characters, I loved the romance, and it just made me feel all the feelings. The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh (audio). A retelling of a Korean fairytale that I knew nothing about. I loved the voice actor (she sounded a lot like Christina Chong from Strange New Worlds). Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune (audio). Drove to Yellowstone and back and this was one of my listens. I think it was even better as an audiobook – the voices were great. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. I loved this book and I didn’t think I would, but it was written for my generation and dealt a lot with college and nostalgia and evolving friendships. A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher. I don’t like her horror as much as I like her fairy tales and fantasy. A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland. A m/m romance set in a fictional Islamic-like world. The world building was fantastic, the magic building was disappointing, and the romance was sweet, if slow-building. The Celebrants by Steven Rowley. I almost gave up on this entirely after the first chapter, because it felt pretentious and dull and “look how adult we are because we are talking about using drugs”, but I kept reading because I liked the premise and by about half way through, I realized that i really liked the story and most of the characters. College nostalgia seems to be my thing right now, and this really captured that friendship – they just all needed less reliance on substances when having conversations. It made me want to do something similar with my friends.

August: Strange Planet by Nathan Pye. I really like his comics so this was a fun quick read from the library. In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune (audio). The book on the drive back from Yellowstone. I didn’t really like the voice actor, which is surprising because I loved his voices in The House in the Cerulean Sea. The rhythm of his voice was off-putting. Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman. Second book of the Arc of the Scythe series. A very solid second book. Nottingham: The True Story of Robyn Hood by Anna Burke. A gender swapped Robin Hood story – fast read and fun. The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson. Friend recommendation. My first Brandon Sanderson read. This was a well developed little novella and an ending that surprised me and yet fit quite well. The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap by Mehrsa Baradaran (audio). Truly depressing but important look at how systemic racism and blatant racism lead to the wealth gap. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. Lovely book, with interwoven characters, and plenty of gray humor. The Moon by Night by Madeleine L’Engle. I had a hankering to reread this after my failed to launch summer romances. Definitely felt the age of this book (written in the 1960s) and the pacing is much different than I remembered, but still some sweet parts. Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki. I don’t even know how to describe this book. Space opera meets Faust? Foster by Claire Keegan. So much atmosphere packed in this short story. Beach Read by Emily Henry. Not quite as good as Book Lovers, but a close second. They just never read on a beach… Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land by Toni Jensen. Book club. This was unexpectedly powerful and the theme of gun violence through was subtle but important. People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry. This was definitely a “you are my story had I had done what I could not do” for me so it probably hit me a little differently than others. It worked well as a When Harry Meets Sally rewrite. Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher. A short Sleeping Beauty retelling of a sort. I adored Toadling. Meet the Austins by Madeleine L’Engle. Went back to read book 1 since I felt like I had missed things with the Moon at Night. I don’t know if I’ll read the whole series again. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. I keep expecting really terrible things to happen to her characters so I’m on edge when reading, but it’s never as bad as I fear.

September: Happy Place by Emily Henry. I was quite in my unhappy place by the end of this book and could grumble about it for hours. The Toll by Neal Shusterman. I can understand why there was some disappointment with the ending of the trilogy but I thought it was quite fitting and I loved the last chapter. Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships by Nina Totenberg. Made me really miss Ruth Bater Ginsberg, but I also liked the focus on how friendships enrich adults lives (I’m liking this theme of friendship much better than the problems with mothers of the first half of the year). A Deadly Education, The Last Graduate, and The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik. Friend recommendation. I found the 1st person narrative to be claustrophobic as it was all stream of consciousness and the world-building a little too pretentious, but the story was still enjoyable. Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall. His books are always hit or miss for me and this one fell into more of the miss bucket – the mystery solved itself halfway through, the next quarter was my least favorite romance trope, and then it was off for another mystery.

Currently reading: Firekeeper’s Daughter (tried this one on audio and it was too much teenager angst, so reading it instead, Braiding Sweetgrass (audio), The Romance Rx (I’m so determined to find a good doctors in training story. I’m a quarter of the way through and can tell you that this won’t be it).

Friend recommendations still to go: The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan, Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel, Sweet Like Jasmine by Bonnie Gray, Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt.