#globe of death

[thebestcomicbookpanels]

Miss Victory from Doll-Man Comics

[andritambunan]

Latest for The LA Times

Folsom, Calif. —  It’s almost 11 a.m. on a Sunday in early September, and it’s already 103 degrees here. Around 20 jugglers, trapeze artists and concession stand workers are filtering into the big top that the majestic Circus Vargas uses to perform across 25 California cities 11 months out of the year.

Seated in red chairs arranged in neat rows inside the ring, these members of the circus community have gathered to attend Mass, an optional circus tradition that happens at least once a year. In the space under the tent, you can see popcorn spilled from the previous day’s slate of three shows.

In the front row sits Daniel Eguino, 36, a daredevil who rides the Globe of Steel, or, as it’s also known in the circus world, the Globe of Death. For the act, Eguino and three other motorcyclists swoop about inside an 18-foot-high locked steel cage at speeds of up to 60 miles an hour, thrilling the watching crowds.

Earlier that morning, Father Frank Cancro, 74, the National Circus Chaplain, laid out water, wine, communion wafers and a cross on a folding table adorned with a black tablecloth. Cancro is a former-clown-turned-retired priest-turned-chaplain appointed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Circus and Traveling Shows Ministry, which dates back 100 years and serves more than 50 circuses around the world. For the past 15 years, he’s been going on the road with circuses to preside over Mass, perform sacraments and provide pastoral care. He doesn’t earn a salary and lives off his diocese retirement and special collections.

Serving what he calls the “most unique congregation on Earth,” he caters to the “spiritual and personal needs of all those who travel down the road without a ZIP Code.”

With his priest stole decorated with embroidered clowns, Cancro is part minister, part grandparent, part therapist and part human resource professional for a population that research shows can struggle with their mental health.

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[travsd]

For World Motorcycle Day: Moments in Midway Daredeviltry

This one goes out to my nephew and good friend James, and I must say I have been looking forward to writing this post for days with child-like glee. It is World Motorcycle Day, and so today (having already written about boyhood hero Evel Knievel), I thought I would provide some perspective on motorcycle stunting in circuses, fairs, and carnivals. The key to these thrilling acts lies in the…

[wandavisionedits]

—Elizabeth Olsen applauding at the 81st Golden Globe Awards

[sunflowergraves]

[a2zillustration]

We lived.

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[weirdlookindog]

A winged skeleton holding a scythe flies above a globe

source

[chaoticace22]

hello fellow internet citizens how do we feel about 2024 so far?

[sictransitgloriamvndi]

[writershapeholeonthedoor]

Oh, to date this girl...

Can you even imagine it?

Gosh, domestic Elizabeth will be the death of me

[wandaswitchbitch]

[wandavisionedits]

—Elizabeth Olsen arrives at the 81st Golden Globe Awards

[therealdisneyfan2319]

I just ascended to some astral plane of sorts

[real-mr-meat]

I just lost the game

@maryland-officially @oogziepie @charlott2n

im so tired i cant think of anyone else

Rules of the game:

1: If you think of the game you lose

2: If you learn the rules of the game you are playing it

3: If you lose the game then you have to spread the message "I just lost the game" to as many people as possible

4: In case someone isn't playing the game, provide rules

5: To win the game you have to knock off the pope's hat

[torgawl]

i was a reading a bit more on purgatory and purgatorius ignis (cleansing fire), which is a concept that existed even before the notion that purgatory itself was a third other-world domain, similar to heaven and hell, when i suddenly remembered dante's la divina commedia and decided to revisit the story a little. and i found something interesting as i was scrolling through the wikipedia page.

so, purgatory is the second part of la divina commedia, following inferno, and is an allegory telling of the climb of dante up the mount of purgatory, guided by the roman poet virgil. alegorically, purgatorio represents the penitent christian life (and christianity, as we know, is one of the core themes of fontaine's archon quests that arlecchino was a part of). while describing the climb dante focuses a lot on the nature of sin, examples of vice and virtue, as well as moral issues in politics and in the church. what's interesting, though, is that the poem posits the theory that all sins arise from love – either perverted love directed towards others' harm, or deficient love, or the disordered or excessive love of good things.

why is this interesting, you ask? let me add here a few quotes before i contextualise it:

"she is a god with no love left for her people, nor do they have any left for her" - dainsleif about the cryo archon, the tsaritsa

"her royal highness the tsaritsa is actually a gentle soul. too gentle, in fact, and that's why she had to harden herself. likewise, she declared war against the whole world only because she dreams of peace. and because she made an enemy of the world, i now have a friend in you." - childe about the tsaritsa

"everyone praises her for her kindness and benevolence, but they forget that love is also a form of sin. what if she's just trying to compensate for something?" - wanderer about the tsaritsa

the tsaritsa, the cryo archon and the person arlecchino is devoted to, is theorised and hinted multiples times to be the god of love. yes, the love that is said to be the origin of sin in la divina commedia. we can also draw parallels between the idea of perverted love talked about in the poem and the relationship between arlecchino and others, for instance the kids of the house of the hearth.

arlecchino's drip marketing including an excerpt where the scene goes from a gentle warm environment, seemingly mistaken as a loving family home full of innocent looking children, that quickly shifts into a somber and dark atmosphere under her authority - the children answering instantly, without hesitation and completely obedient -, is the perfect illustration of the duality within her character. there's an obvious exploitative and manipulative system making use of the house of the hearth and the orphans under its roof, where arlecchino (as the one running the orphanage) is the provider and the kids are brought up to be dependable and further dispatched as fatui soldiers when "potential" is recognised. and we can deduce that there's ways that their education is done from a very young age so it prevents or punishes any sort of dissent, something not hard to imagine when we know from freminet that arlecchino doesn't like when the kids cry or show emotional vulnerability, something she sees as weakness, for example. but if there's this dark side to her, there's also certain attitudes that demonstrate her care for the children or even her care for the world around her. arlecchino helping freminet get closure on his mother's death, the reformation of the house of the hearth (which we know used to have a much more punishitive and strict leader before arlecchino took over) or even her devotion and deep respect towards the tsaritsa are some examples of the way she shows care for other people. now, we can theorise that these good deeds directed towards the orphans under her care are very much purposeful to better manipulate them, but i think that's exactly what the notion of perverted love in la divina commedia tries to hint at.

besides this concept, there's something else that peaked my interest in dante's poem. dante pictures purgatory as an island at the antipodes of jerusalem, pushed up, in an otherwise empty sea, by the displacement caused by the fall of satan, which left him fixed at the central point of the earth. it's a cone-shaped island that has seven terraces on which souls are cleansed from the seven deadly sins or capital vices as they ascend. at the summit is the garden of eden, from where the souls, cleansed of evil tendencies and made perfect, are taken to heaven.

as we know, arlecchino is being introduced in fontaine, her homeland, and the idea of purgatory as an island in the sea leading its way to heaven caused by the fall of a sinful being sort of reminded me of remuria. remuria was the civilization in fontaine which directly preceded the previous hydro archon egeria's rule. its downfall occurred as a result of remus' attempt to avert its predicted destruction, and in particular, by his act of sharing his power and authority — reserved only for gods — with the four human harmosts he appointed to govern his cities. remuria eventually ended up being sunken into the abyss, devouring everything including the people and remus himself. we know there's still a region in fontaine's map that wasn't yet released, so how odd would it be that the last part to be revealed in fontaine might just be the land that was once sunken? after the little note about the samsara cycles near the tower of the narzissenkreuz ordo, which referenced a cycle called remuria, i would not be surprised at all. it's also particularly funny that fontaine is directly below celestia. yes, the floating island in the sky above teyvat which is the residence of the gods, the same gods that made remuria fall. as the contemporary philosophers of our time have said, that's sus!!!

i don't want to get too ahead of myself because i don't have a theory about what's going to happen or what role arlecchino will play exactly but i don't think it would be shocking if we got to know more about remuria during her release. and still in the purgatory idea, i think the angel of death (azreal) might be an interesting parallel to make with arlecchino. azrael's role is seen as benevolent, transporting souls after death. it fits perfectly well with the idea of purgatorius ignis, that signifies transformation. in different cultural and religious contexts, fire can also symbolize destruction renewal and even rebirth so i'm very very curious to see what arlecchino's story will be like.

[mikeywayarchive]

Instagram story by mikeyway

[Sep 17, 2024]